RAYNER’S LAW

When Conservatives are accused of wrongdoing, they must publicly prove their innocence. But for Keir’s deputy, vague assurances seem to be enough

ON January 25, 2022, Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick announced to the London Assembly’s Police and Crime Committee that her officers had opened an investigation into a number of events that had been held in Downing Street during lockdown.

Within minutes, Labour Deputy Leader Angela Rayner took to Twitter. ‘Boris Johnson’s Downing Street is under police investigation,’ she raged. ‘How on earth can he think he can stay on as Prime Minister? Millions of people are struggling to pay the bills, but Boris Johnson and his government are too wrapped up in scandal to do anything about it. Disgraceful.’

On Friday, Greater Manchester Police announced they were placing Angela Rayner under investigation for potential offences arising from her residency, ownership and subsequent sale of two properties bought separately by herself and her then husband from Stockport Council.

The specific focus of the probe is unclear, but is believed to relate to possible breaches of electoral law registration and tax law.

It’s important to stress that Rayner denies any wrongdoing, and has not been charged with any offence, let alone been convicted. And like any citizen, she is entitled to a presumption of innocence until guilt is proven.

But before the police have conducted a single interview, one thing has already been proven beyond reasonable doubt. Labour’s Deputy Leader, her boss Sir Keir

Starmer, her colleagues and her supporters believe in a new concept – Rayner’s Law.

This self-serving edict holds that while they are free to demand the highest standards of honesty, transparency and probity from their political opponents, those standards do not apply to themselves. Rules surrounding good governance and conduct in public office are just something to be enforced upon the evil Tories and the little people.

Labour’s heroic class-warriors, currently storming to power on a wave of anti-Conservative antipathy, have the right to do whatever they damn well please.

Look no further than the Partygate scandal. That presumption of innocence which is everybody’s right is not one that Rayner extended to Boris Johnson. The mere fact he was being investigated by the Met was enough to damn him in her eyes.

‘But Boris was convicted!’ her cheerleaders cry. Yes. Of one offence. Of eating a piece of cake.

On all other charges, the then Prime Minister was acquitted.

But that didn’t stop Rayner and Starmer pursuing him over every incident – big or small – that occurred in No10 during lockdown. Indeed, as a result of the Partygate crisis, Starmer decided to place integrity in high office at the heart of his political project.

That is until questions started to be asked about his own deputy. At which point, Rayner’s Law kicked in, and scrutiny of senior political figures became unacceptable. Those having the temerity to query Angela Rayner were ‘chasing a smear’, he claimed.

A ‘smear’ which Sir Keir presumably now believes is being pursued by Greater Manchester constabulary.

Fine. So for consistency was it a ‘smear’ when he and Rayner accused Johnson over the cheese and wine party (no police action was taken against the then PM)? Drinks in the No10 garden (again, no police action taken)? Dominic Cummings’ leaving party (similarly, no police action against Johnson)? The No10 Christmas quiz (no police action taken against the PM)?

No. Because Rayner’s Law applies. It’s one rule for Starmer and his chums. And one rule for everyone else.

Anyone in any doubt about these double standards need only to have listened to Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves on Radio 4’s Today programme on Tuesday as she announced plans for a crackdown on tax-dodgers. Was she sure Angela Rayner wasn’t one of them, she was asked. ‘Yes, I’m absolutely certain,’ she replied. ‘Angela is a good friend.’

Rayner’s Law. When Tories are accused of wrongdoing, they have to prove their innocence publicly. But if you’re a member of Starmer’s Shadow Cabinet? Friendship and a vague assurance of rectitude would seem to be enough.

When this scandal broke, I thought it would follow the classic political template. The offences for which Rayner was accused were relatively minor but her failure to provide transparency would be what damaged her. ‘It’s not the offence, it’s the cover-up.’

But what’s actually doing the damage to her – and her leader, and her party – isn’t actually the cover-up. It’s the grotesque, unashamedly naked double standards on display as Rayner’s Law is prosecuted with such ferocity.

Sitting at the heart of this whole sorry affair – just as it always seems to do when it’s a case of Labour skulduggery – is the Dodgy Dossier. The mysterious report Rayner claims has been produced for her by ‘independent’ tax experts, proving she broke no rules when she sold her home. But when she was asked if this document would be published, she replied: ‘I don’t need to publish all of my details… It’s not fair on my family for that information to be out there.’

Which will have surprised Conservative MP Jill Mortimer. In 2021, she was standing in the hotly contested Hartlepool by-election, when it emerged she had spent time living with her former husband in the Caymans.

Labour immediately shot off a letter to Tory party chair Amanda Milling, demanding: ‘In the interests of transparency, will you now publish a full account of Jill Mortimer’s time in the Cayman Islands? Will you also order Jill Mortimer to publish in full her tax returns covering that period?’

The Shadow Minister who authored this missive demanding transparency from Mortimer and her husband? You’ve guessed it. Angela Rayner.

At the beginning of his leadership, Sir Keir Starmer piously declared: ‘As a matter of principle for me, it’s very important we have honour, integrity and accountability in politics.’

But now we know the truth. It’s hypocrisy, not honour, that will form the cornerstone of his party’s administration.

Rather than embrace integrity, he and his Ministers will practise insolent evasion, buttressed by self-serving cronyism.

Accountability? That’s for chumps. ‘Do as we say, not as we do’ will be his Government’s mantra. One rule for Labour. Another rule for everyone else. It’s Rayner’s Law. And woe betide those of us plebs who forget it.

It’s one rule for Starmer and his chums. And one rule for everyone else

Sitting at the heart of this whole sorry affair is the Dodgy Dossier