2 hours agoShareSaveLaura KuenssbergPresenter, Sunday with Laura KuenssbergShareSaveBBCWelcome to the weird world of UK politics 2025.The TV presenter Jeremy Kyle announces to a huge crowd of Nigel Farage supporters at Reform UK’s party conference that David Lammy is the new number two in government and they boo, panto-style.And there’s a YouTube video of the (now former) deputy prime minister dancing in a tracksuit and chunky gold chain waving wads of cash that’s been watched more than 1.5m times.These might both sound like parodies, but only the video of Angela Rayner rapping “How Many Homes Can Rayner Buy” was a joke.And what was planned as No 10’s “get back in charge week” has been blown up by a row you couldn’t make up – the housing secretary in trouble for not paying tens of thousands of pounds of tax on her expensive new house.Her exit pushed the button on a chunky shakeup of Sir Keir Starmer’s team.The start of this political season has been wild.Arron Chown/ PAIn the end, Rayner’s decision to go was clear cut.The official report into her behaviour said she’d tried to do the right thing, but not tried hard enough. So the rules had been broken.Her camp reckoned she had no option. No 10 agreed.There is frustration that the manner of her exit from government gave her critics what they wanted. But she knew she had no choice, and was devastated by her own mistake.It’s acutely and specifically painful for Labour because Rayner had personally styled herself as something of a sleaze-buster.It was she who often led the charge against the succession of Conservatives who got into trouble over their own complicated financial arrangements, hurling accusations of arrogance and greed on a fairly regular basis.She was the shoutier end of Starmer’s so called “Mr Rules” approach, a serious belief that government had to be washed clean of its tawdry image after multiple scandals and Boris Johnson’s, ahem, flexible attitude to the normal rules.She portrayed herself as a loud and proud champion of ordinary people looking at the worst Westminster behaviour in disgust.Jane Barlow/ PAFor Labour in general, it undermines again, their claim to be different to those who went before, to return government to the “service of the people”, as Sir Keir said so many times – to be competent, with clean heels.For the government’s number two to have messed up her tax affairs undermines faith in ministers’ ability. As one MP put it, “it’s not even a rookie error, it’s 40,000 smackers of oversight”.And for such a prominent politician to lose their job over property dealings that many of the public couldn’t imagine being able to afford gives the impression, again, that politicians live in a different world.”There’s just the smell test,” a Labour insider said.Chris Jackson / PAThis time last year, Rayner, the prime minister himself, and even the chancellor were all red faced for taking, albeit permitted freebies, of clothes, glasses, and gig tickets, struggling to explain why politicians are entitled to free stuff the rest of us are not. Twelve months on, Rayner is the fifth minister who has quit after their actions caused embarrassment for the government. Those clean heels look a bit scruffy now.Getty ImagesThe mess is, of course, a gift for Nigel Farage. At his party’s conference in Birmingham on Friday Rayner’s exit didn’t just shove him on stage a few hours early for his speech to try to grab a space in the news cycle, it gave more ammunition to his fundamental argument.Reform’s pitch rests on a claim that the two big parties are as bad as each other, and preside over a system that is bust.Does his vow he could stop the small boats in a fortnight stand up? We’ve been speaking to the Reform leader, and our full interview will be on the show on Sunday.Andy Rain/ EPA /ShutterstockThe prime minister’s answer to the drama of the last couple of days?Making changes to his ministers.The decisions were made finally because of Rayner’s exit but the moves have been long in the making.Downing Street’s hope is to salvage opportunity out of what was fast morphing into a crisis. A No 10 source tells me: “None of us expected it to unfold as it did, but this gives real shape and substance to a refreshed No 10 team, marking a strong new phase of this premiership.”You and I might translate that as: “The saga over Angela’s tax was a total pain in the neck, but it’s given us the excuse to make some of the changes we fancied anyway.”One insider described it as moving those who were “a bit awkward, or a bit tired”.Aaron Chown/ PAWhat those changes add up to depends on who you ask.One ally of the PM tells me, the reshuffle “is all about immigration”, believing “Shabana [Mahmood] is the one who can …
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[mwai_chat context=”Let’s have a discussion about this article:nn2 hours agoShareSaveLaura KuenssbergPresenter, Sunday with Laura KuenssbergShareSaveBBCWelcome to the weird world of UK politics 2025.The TV presenter Jeremy Kyle announces to a huge crowd of Nigel Farage supporters at Reform UK’s party conference that David Lammy is the new number two in government and they boo, panto-style.And there’s a YouTube video of the (now former) deputy prime minister dancing in a tracksuit and chunky gold chain waving wads of cash that’s been watched more than 1.5m times.These might both sound like parodies, but only the video of Angela Rayner rapping “How Many Homes Can Rayner Buy” was a joke.And what was planned as No 10’s “get back in charge week” has been blown up by a row you couldn’t make up – the housing secretary in trouble for not paying tens of thousands of pounds of tax on her expensive new house.Her exit pushed the button on a chunky shakeup of Sir Keir Starmer’s team.The start of this political season has been wild.Arron Chown/ PAIn the end, Rayner’s decision to go was clear cut.The official report into her behaviour said she’d tried to do the right thing, but not tried hard enough. So the rules had been broken.Her camp reckoned she had no option. No 10 agreed.There is frustration that the manner of her exit from government gave her critics what they wanted. But she knew she had no choice, and was devastated by her own mistake.It’s acutely and specifically painful for Labour because Rayner had personally styled herself as something of a sleaze-buster.It was she who often led the charge against the succession of Conservatives who got into trouble over their own complicated financial arrangements, hurling accusations of arrogance and greed on a fairly regular basis.She was the shoutier end of Starmer’s so called “Mr Rules” approach, a serious belief that government had to be washed clean of its tawdry image after multiple scandals and Boris Johnson’s, ahem, flexible attitude to the normal rules.She portrayed herself as a loud and proud champion of ordinary people looking at the worst Westminster behaviour in disgust.Jane Barlow/ PAFor Labour in general, it undermines again, their claim to be different to those who went before, to return government to the “service of the people”, as Sir Keir said so many times – to be competent, with clean heels.For the government’s number two to have messed up her tax affairs undermines faith in ministers’ ability. As one MP put it, “it’s not even a rookie error, it’s 40,000 smackers of oversight”.And for such a prominent politician to lose their job over property dealings that many of the public couldn’t imagine being able to afford gives the impression, again, that politicians live in a different world.”There’s just the smell test,” a Labour insider said.Chris Jackson / PAThis time last year, Rayner, the prime minister himself, and even the chancellor were all red faced for taking, albeit permitted freebies, of clothes, glasses, and gig tickets, struggling to explain why politicians are entitled to free stuff the rest of us are not. Twelve months on, Rayner is the fifth minister who has quit after their actions caused embarrassment for the government. Those clean heels look a bit scruffy now.Getty ImagesThe mess is, of course, a gift for Nigel Farage. At his party’s conference in Birmingham on Friday Rayner’s exit didn’t just shove him on stage a few hours early for his speech to try to grab a space in the news cycle, it gave more ammunition to his fundamental argument.Reform’s pitch rests on a claim that the two big parties are as bad as each other, and preside over a system that is bust.Does his vow he could stop the small boats in a fortnight stand up? We’ve been speaking to the Reform leader, and our full interview will be on the show on Sunday.Andy Rain/ EPA /ShutterstockThe prime minister’s answer to the drama of the last couple of days?Making changes to his ministers.The decisions were made finally because of Rayner’s exit but the moves have been long in the making.Downing Street’s hope is to salvage opportunity out of what was fast morphing into a crisis. A No 10 source tells me: “None of us expected it to unfold as it did, but this gives real shape and substance to a refreshed No 10 team, marking a strong new phase of this premiership.”You and I might translate that as: “The saga over Angela’s tax was a total pain in the neck, but it’s given us the excuse to make some of the changes we fancied anyway.”One insider described it as moving those who were “a bit awkward, or a bit tired”.Aaron Chown/ PAWhat those changes add up to depends on who you ask.One ally of the PM tells me, the reshuffle “is all about immigration”, believing “Shabana [Mahmood] is the one who can …nnDiscussion:nn” ai_name=”RocketNews AI: ” start_sentence=”Can I tell you more about this article?” text_input_placeholder=”Type ‘Yes'”]
