Raynergate: Glass houses much?

There’s plenty surreal about the right-wing media trying to keep a straight face as they strain to make the (alleged, decade-old) minor tax misstep by Labour’s deputy leader, into something that would justify the "-gate" suffix.

One of the quirks of this weird little episode is how circumspect Angela Rayner's chief public accuser has been with his public accusations. When invited to lay out his case live on air, James Daly MP (literally the most marginal politician in the country, having won his seat by 0.2%) would only say this was a matter

But a much bigger issue here is the local political context. Who are the most prominent MPs in Rayner’s area? You have Paul Maynard, under investigation for allegedly using taxpayers funds in his own reelection campaign. You have Scott Benton, who resigned after getting caught in a Times of London sting, loudly promising to lobby in exchange for cold hard cash and boasting that all other MPs do that, too. And you’ve got Mark Menzies, who, it is alleged, apparently combined the two approaches into the jaw-dropping move of calling up an elderly constituent in the middle of the night and requesting what sounds like ransom money to rescue himself from a date gone wrong. Menzies, mind you, is no 2019 coat-tails surfer like Benton. He is of the Cameron intake. Even more than in the dying days of the Major government, the rot has truly spread across the Conservative party, root and branch. 

Rayner promised to resign if Daly’s insinuations and allegations bear out. In the unlikely event this was to occur, Labour and the country would lose one of our most promising politicians over the most inconsequential incident that would still approach the bar of a resigning offence - especially when alongside the example set day in, day out, by those who rule. 

It’s true we expect a higher degree of decency from Labour, who cast themselves as just, than from Conservatives, who cast themselves merely as powerful (victims of the bigotry of low expectations, one might say, if one was inclined to take Katharine Birbalsingh at face value.) But even by these softer standards, the Conservatives are failing to keep their own troops under control. 

The party is like an army on the verge of a rout, no longer hoping to save itself or its cause but entirely absorbed with settling old scores and looting the people it’s meant to be defending. And it's all happening in plain sight. There is no outcome of the Rayner inquiry that would make this plundering mob look good in comparison.

(D.R.)


HUSTINGS PARA & PIC

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