Angela’s clashes
Labour star Rayner’s ex-aide is paid £20k over unfair dismissal claim – then writes novel about murderous MP with oh-so coincidental parallels
‘The book is a work of fiction’
THE remarkable story of Angela Rayner’s rise from teenage single mother to Labour MP and Corbynista poster girl has made her favourite to be the party’s new deputy leader.
But the flame-haired Left winger has been left embarrassed by a political thriller – titled Betrayal – written by her former chief aide.
The book is about a northerner called ‘Abigail Jeffers’ who had her first child at 16, became a union official, an MP with a ‘gobby mouth’ and Labour education spokesman determined to be leader. She wears bright green jackets, colourful scarves, flashy shoes and is known as ‘The Diva’ by her Commons staff.
Anyone who knows Miss Rayner, 39, might be forgiven for saying the protagonist bears a striking similarity to the politician, though author Matt Finnegan is insistent it is a complete work of fiction.
To add to the intrigue, a Daily Mail investigation has established how Labour secured a controversial ‘gagging order’ after a bitter fall out between Miss Rayner and former special adviser Mr Finnegan, 62.
He was secretly paid £20,000 compensation by Labour after suing her for ‘unfair dismissal and disability discrimination’. Government records show he withdrew the claim in February 2018 before it reached a full employment tribunal hearing. At Labour’s request, Mr Finnegan signed a controversial non-disclosure agreement ensuring it was covered up.
Mr Finnegan said last night: ‘ The book draws on my experience in the Labour Party over 30 years. But it is a work of fiction.’
Asked if MP Abigail was based on Miss Rayner, he said: ‘People who read the book will draw their own conclusions about the characters in it and what happens when politicians pursue power ruthlessly.’
The book is full of detail about the kinds of plotting and partying that go on at Labour’s annual conference accumulated by Mr Finnegan in his roles as a press officer, activist and candidate.
He became Miss Rayner’s special adviser after she won her Ashton-under-Lyne seat, Manchester, in 2015.
His £28,000 salary was jointly funded by the Commons authorities and the Labour Party, although his compensation was funded wholly by Labour.
Labour sources say Mr Finnegan was ‘sacked’ when he was on sick leave after being diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes.
The novel features numerous characteristics a reader may think point to similarities between Miss Rayner – known to friends as Angi – and Abigail – known as Abi in Betrayal.
Abi has a child ‘who she gave birth to at the age of 16 and who figured in many of her speeches as an MP’ – just like Miss Rayner.
The book tells of Abi’s back story as a teenage mum, how she ‘ never had a proper education’, and was ‘rescued’ by the Labour government’s Sure Start scheme. Miss Rayner wrote in 2017: ‘If I hadn’t had access to the support of my local Sure Start centre, I would never have had the help I, and my son, needed.’
In the novel, Abi says: ‘I remember when I was a young, unmarried mum, and every day I had to count the pennies to see what I could afford, to feed my baby daughter.’
Miss Rayner has told how she grew up so poor there was ‘never any breakfast in the morning’. After having a baby she was determined to be ‘the best parent I could because Mum couldn’t give me those things’.
Both the real and fictional characters became shop stewards for public sector trade union Unison. In the book Abi is called ‘gobby but bright’. Sure enough, in 2018 Miss Rayner said she was seen as ‘a gobby northern ginger lass’.
They even look the same: the character in the novel appears ‘resplendent in a bright green jacket’, as Miss Rayner did at the 2016 Labour conference. Both prefer long hair and colourful scarves. And they share a weakness for shoes. The fictitious Abi’s aide curses her for demanding he bring her a different pair of shoes for each day of a week-long event.
In real life, Miss Rayner was so incensed at missing out on a limited edition pair of Star Wars shoes she complained on Commons headed notepaper.
The incident seems to be thinly disguised in the book, with Abi using official stationery to try to book a table at London’s trendy Ivy restaurant.
The novel, however, then veers well into the realms of fiction – as Abi is caught out in an £80 expenses hotel scam after a drunken one-night stand with a fellow shadow cabinet member. Ordered to quit by the shadow chancellor, Abi takes advantage of his diabetic coma to give him a fatal insulin overdose and so cover up her expenses scandal and position herself to be Labour leader. The book ends with her crime being exposed by a hard-partying Daily Mail political reporter.
Miss Rayner declined to comment last night. The Labour Party failed to respond to requests for a comment.
■ Sir Keir Starmer has increased his lead in the Labour leadership contest. A YouGov poll of party members for the Times found if the race was held tomorrow, the shadow Brexit secretary would beat his closest rival, Rebecca Long-Bailey, in the final round by 63 per cent to 37 per cent.