Red Queen more than a match for Tory toffs

“The hounding of Angela Rayner is outrageous: brutal, snobbish and completely out of proportion...”

“Her attackers cannot bear the idea they are about to lose to a woman who pulled herself up by her bootstraps.”

Not my words. The words of two former Conservative MPs. The politician-turned-commentator Matthew Parris, and former Tory minister Nick Boles.

At least a DOZEN police officers are now looking into the sale of the Deputy Labour Leader’s council house. Most people in Stockport would be grateful to see even one after an actual burglary.

The rancid smell of right-wing hypocrisy wafts through the air like an out-of-date tin of caviar.

Inquiries into Tory minister Nadhim Zahawi’s tax affairs saw him having to pay back £5million to HMRC. Lord Ashcroft, whose book Red Queen led with the allegations, has been accused of owing the Treasury millions as a “non dom” (a status Labour intends to abolish). And let’s not even mention the Prime Minister’s one-time “non-dom” wife or, God forbid, Michelle Mone.

Rayner was not a multi-millionaire with an expensive tax lawyer. She was a home help rightly proud of buying her own home – spending months in hospital with her premature baby son.

Even her accusers must admit the sum they’re arguing about – around £3,000 – would barely heat Zahawi’s stables.

It’s easy to see why the Red Queen winds the Tories up so much. Misogyny, classism, and boys pushing girls they fancy over in the playground.

A woman tough enough to drag herself from home help to Parliament is more than a match for her Tory tormentors. Sadly, the collateral damage to her family is an entirely more painful and shameful thing.