Angela Rayner

Angela Rayner ( Bowen; born 28 March 1980) is a British Labour politician, care worker, and trade unionist. Rayner was elected as Member of Parliament (MP) for Ashton-under-Lyne at the 2015 general election and has served as Shadow Secretary of State for Education since 1 July 2016.

Rayner, who left school as a pregnant teenager, worked as a care worker and later as a union representative before entering politics. A member of the Labour Party's soft left, she has been described as a possible future Leader of the Labour Party. In regards to education policy, Rayner supports a proposed "National Education Service" (NES) modelled after the National Health Service.

Early life and education
Rayner was born on 28 March 1980 in Stockport, Greater Manchester, England. She attended Avondale School in Stockport, leaving school as a pregnant teenager, and with no qualifications. She later studied British Sign Language, care, and counselling at Stockport College, a college of further and higher education.

Early career
After leaving school, Rayner worked for Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council as a care worker before being elected as a UNISON union representative. She served as Convenor of UNISON North West, the most senior UNISON official in the region.

The Guardian featured a long profile of Rayner in 2012, as an example of a trade union officer's working life.

Parliamentary career


Rayner contested the Ashton-under-Lyne constituency at the 2015 general election, and increased the Labour majority and share of the vote in the constituency. She delivered her maiden speech in the House of Commons on 3 June 2015. Rayner successfully defended her Ashton-under-Lyne seat at the general election called on 8 June 2017 both increasing the Labour Party majority and vote share.

Rayner supported Andy Burnham in the 2015 Labour Party leadership election, and was one of 18 MPs to back Jeremy Corbyn against challenger Owen Smith in the 2016 leadership race. Citing her pragmatism, she described her political beliefs as "soft left" in a 2017 interview.

Shadow Minister
On 27 June 2016, she was promoted to Shadow Women and Equalities Minister, and was further promoted later that week to Shadow Education Secretary, as Jeremy Corbyn reshuffled his shadow cabinet following a string of resignations. Rayner had previously served as Opposition Whip and Shadow Pensions Minister.

Views
Rayner is concerned that statutory instruments enable the government to bypass parliament and fears this is a threat to democracy. Notably, Rayner is concerned that the government in 2017 raised tuition fees by statutory instrument and disregarded a later vote in parliament against this rise. Rayner fears similar statutory instruments may be used to bypass parliament over Brexit.

On 24 October 2017 Rayner referred to Conservative MP and government whip Chris Heaton-Harris as a 'pound-shop McCarthy', in reference to his letter to UK universities regarding their teaching on the subject of Brexit.