I remember the moment well; I was talking with Unison’s Colin Meach in the lobby of the QE Hall seven or eight years ago. Beside him was a red-haired woman I took to being one of Colin’s team.
“I don’t suppose Angela Rayner will bother turning up today, Colin” – I quipped.
“Well here she is” – Colin replied
I had many ideas of what Labour’s new shadow pensions minister would look like, but I clearly hadn’t reckoned she’d look like the lady who smiled at me, looked me in the eye and said
“Don’t worry, we all say silly things”
I mumbled an apology and fled and it’s taken me the best part of a decade to get over my stupidity.
But the warm and generous smile and the words of comfort have stayed with me, perhaps another lesson in how to deal with male entitlement”.
She didn’t stay long as Shadow Pensions Minister. I listened to what she said and wrote when she was. I was disappointed to see her move on, though I could see she was destined for a leadership role. This was what I was writing about her early in 2016.
How to conduct yourself
Since my (to me) dreadful gaffe, I have watched Rayner become deputy prime minister and the person who handled many of the hard questions for her party in the recent election.
She is good at being Angela Rayner and Angela Rayner has more in common with most people than any other cabinet or shadow cabinet minister
She is no push over. But when she is at her toughest, she keeps a smile on her face
Nothing much seems to phase her, she is confident in her own skin. The FT are running a piece on her this weekend
I doubt many of us have fully understood Rayner’s impact or properly reckoned with her personality. She keeps things very simple
“From the beginning of my working life I’ve always stood up for working people, first as a Trade Union rep representing care workers and then as a regional union official. Now I use the skills I’ve developed to represent the communities of Ashton-under-Lyne.”
That was from her constituency website. She has widened her constituency since and is now one of the most influential people in the country.
Few will begrudge her , her success. I wish there were more like her.
Brassy!
