Angela Rayner: Life and career of Labour's new Deputy Prime Minister including becoming a grandmother at 37

After the General Election, which resulted in a landslide victory for Labour and the first change of government in 15 years, the Ashton-under-Lyne MP is now one of the most powerful people in the country. 

As Angela, 44, and her Labour colleagues gear themselves up for the first crucial 100 days in power, here is everything you need to know about the life and career so far of the UK’s new Deputy Prime Minister. 

Angela Rayner’s life outside of politics

Unlike many of her colleagues in Westminster, Angela Rayner’s life started out on a council estate. Angela was many things before politics, including teenage mother, care worker and union official. 

In interviews throughout her career, Angela has spoken openly about her difficult childhood, growing up in poverty and having to look after her mother, who had bi-polar and depression. She has two siblings. 

She attended Avondale School, but left at 16 with no qualifications and pregnant with her first child Ryan. She then returned to college part-time, studying social care and British Sign Language.

Angela went on to work as a carer looking after the elderly for Stockport Council for several years, eventually being elected as a union representative. She rose through the UNISON ranks, becoming the union’s highest elected official in the North West. 

In 2010, she married Mark Rayner, a fellow Unison official. Angela had two more sons with Mark – Charlie, who was born 23 weeks premature, and Jimmy. The couple split in 2020 but have remained friends. Angela became a grandmother in 2017, aged 37, when her son Ryan welcomed a baby daughter. 

Angela Rayner also had a relationship with fellow Labour MP and former shadow transport minister Sam Tarry. He was sacked from his ministerial role in 2022 after joining the picket line alongside striking rail workers. They split in 2023. 

Angela Rayner’s life in politics 

Having risen the union ranks, Angela was selected to be a prospective party candidate for Labour in 2014 and then elected to parliament as the MP for Ashton-Under-Lyne in 2015. She was the constituency’s first female MP in its 180-year history. 

After just one year in Westminster, Angela was selected for the front bench to serve as the Shadow Minister for Education under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership. She was re-elected as MP in the 2017 General Election with a much higher share of the votes at 60.4%, and again in the 2019 snap general election with 48.1%. 

She was elected Deputy Leader of the Labour party in 2020 when Keir Starmer became leader of the party. However, she was sacked as Party Chair following a historic Labour loss to the Conservatives in the Hartlepool by-election in 2021.  She became Shadow Deputy Prime Minister during a reshuffle in 2023, taking over from Harriet Harmen. She was also appointed Shadow Secretary for Levelling Up.  Politically, Angela Rayner has described herself as a socialist. 

Controversies

Angela Rayner’s time in politics has not been without controversy. In 2021, she publicly apologised to the Conservative party for calling its members “scum” during the Labour party conference. 

In 2022, she hit out at a Daily Mail article that claimed she was intentionally crossing and uncrossing her legs in Parliament as a part of a “Basic Instinct” style ploy to distract then Prime Minister Boris Johnson. 

Most recently, in March 2024, Angela Rayner was accused of not paying the capital gains tax on the sale of her Stockport council house in 2015. She was cleared in May following an investigation by Greater Manchester Police, who said that no further action was needed.