‘Golden boy of hard Left’ who packs a tell-tale toothbrush

THE Labour shadow transport minister sacked after appearing on a picket line was nicknamed the ‘golden boy of the British hard Left’ and dates deputy party leader Angela Rayner.

Sam Tarry, who had joined workers at Euston station in London, is already fighting a battle to remain as Labour candidate in his Ilford South constituency in east London.

The father-of-two – the eldest son of a Church of England vicar – is an ardent Leftwinger who won selection in his home seat in 2019 after a campaign run by union GMB and grassroots movement Momentum.

He won selection after moderate MP Mike Gapes stood down after 27 years.

Mr Tarry’s first formal post in politics was as chairman of youth wing Young Labour. The 39-year-old also served as a councillor in east London’s Barking and Dagenham from 2010 to 2018, where he was cleared of electoral fraud after being accused of spending most of his time living in Brighton at a £550,000 house jointly owned with his wife, who was then a junior doctor, and renting out his home in east London.

He has worked as Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership campaign director and as an officer for the TSSA trade union.

Miss Rayner, 42, separated from her husband Mark in 2020 and was first seen with Mr Tarry, who had also parted from his wife, in January this year. The pair are understood to have become close while he was running her campaign to become deputy leader. He was famously spotted with a tell-tale toothbrush in his pocket as the pair left her London home.

Mr Tarry is fighting a selection battle in his constituency after the threshold to ‘trigger’ his seat was met, meaning he will face a vote to keep his seat for the next election.

All ten local Labour branches voted against him automatically becoming their candidate at the next election.

Mr Tarry claimed he had evidence of ‘rulebreaking, concrete evidence of voter fraud, voter impersonation... and the dangerous whipping up of communal tensions to undermine the democratic reselection process in an attempt to unseat me’.