Deputy: Childhood chaos fuels my politics
Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner has revealed how her tough upbringing fuelled her passion for politics.
The MP was a carer for her mother (who has bipolar disorder) from the age of 10, got pregnant at 15 and left school with no qualifications at 16.
Rayner, raised on a council estate in Stockport, said: “We were the lowest. It taught me structures and it taught me about people.
“That’s why I’ve mastered politics in the way that I have, because it is about knowing about the unspoken. A lot of times people think you have to go to university to learn about politics and get a degree. The master’s in real life that I’ve got has been the thing that I’ve used the most in parliament, because you have to be able to understand the way in which communities work.”
She said mother’s bipolar disorder led to her struggling to deal with affection and told The Times: “I can’t be loved because I never have been, so I find it difficult feeling nurtured and happy. I’m never content. I never look at things and think, ‘Wow, look at what you’ve achieved.’ Instead I think to myself, ‘What haven’t you done?’”
She considers Labour to be her adopted family. She said: “I came from a dysfunctional home, so the Labour Party was a place where I felt nurtured and could be who I wanted to be.”
Rayner, elected as a MP in 2015, said she has “thrived” because of the chaos at Westminster over the past six years.
She said: “The trauma, the screaming, the unpredictability – this is my bread and butter, this is life, this is what I’m used to. In fact, I think it’s strange when people are nice. I find taking compliments more difficult than taking abuse, to be honest.”