It seems Rayner's not such a working class hero after all

The current row over Labour Party donations has been rumbling on for some time, but the latest revelation about Angela Rayner’s alleged hiring of a £57,000-plus-a-year photographer is particularly disheartening.

- EMMA CLARKE

She grew up on a council estate, went to a state school – and, unlike many of her colleagues and peers at Westminster, has worked her way up from the bottom. She’s said herself that from the beginning of her working life she’s “always stood up for working people”. There’s no two ways about it: she’s cut from different cloth – or, at least, she was. So, what’s happened?

I have long looked up to Rayner – especially because I, too, am a woman from a working-class background, who has likewise had to fight for position and prove my worth at every level.

I fully believe that, when you get to that point and your situation changes, you should pay things forward – and, for the most part, that’s what Rayner does: offering a platform, raising key issues that impact the masses as well as her constituency and giving a voice to the marginalised.