Rayner vows to 'learn the lessons' following last week's local elections dramas

Ashton and Failsworth MP Angela Rayner has vowed to learn the lessons of last week’s elections to enable the Labour Party to reconnect with the people it was founded to fight for.

It certainly proved to be an eventful weekend for the local MP after a massively disappointing set of results for her party in last Thursday's voting.

Ms Rayner was initially sacked as Labour Party chair and national campaign co-ordinator by Labour chief Sir Kier Starmer.

However, following a weekend shuffle of the shadow cabinet by the party leader, Ms Rayner's roles are now Deputy Leader of the Labour Party (which she already held), Shadow First Secretary of State, Shadow Chancellor to the Duchy of Lancaster, where she will take on Michael Gove, and Shadow Secretary of State for the Future of Work.

Ms Rayner said: "As a party, we've got to offer something that speaks to our voters post-pandemic that focuses on jobs and security, and looking out for our area and being proud of it.

"We've got to say what we mean and mean what we say - speak to voters and actually listen to what they’re telling us.

“When I say Labour want to improve things, I’m talking about pay-rises, rights at work, ending out-sourcing - so our public services are for the public and not for profit - and bringing back industry and green jobs into areas that have been hammered.

"It's about not talking fluffy language, it's actually making sure that you have got a decent, secure job that pays you well and that you can get a home and look after your family – that’s it in a nutshell.

“We must learn from our challenges and our successes to turn this situation around so that people feel we speak for them again and trust us with their votes.

“That is the lesson from Greater Manchester, where Andy Burnham showed the difference that Labour makes in power: he connected with people and showed that he was on their side.

“We need to show those who have lost faith what we stand for that we are on their side and that we will stand up for them.

“We will show the difference between Labour and the Tories when it comes to the economy.

"That means jobs, opportunities, pay and rights at work.

"This is not about tweaking a failing system, but changing it so that it works for working people.

"As a starting principle this means a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work and good, well-paid jobs in every community.

“Over the past few decades, in large parts of the country, the jobs that you can raise a family on and that provide a sense of identity and dignity have been replaced by insecure, zero-hours and agency work that offer only poverty wages and the exploitation and mistreatment of workers to squeeze out every last penny of profit.

“Labour is, and always will be, the party of workers and our trade union movement.

"For us, the future of work will mean shifting the balance back towards working people, ending fire and rehire and building an economy out of this crisis that works for everyone.

“That difference means investing tens of billions of pounds into green industries to meet our climate obligations at the same time as delivering good, well-paid jobs and bringing industry back to the communities that Margaret Thatcher tried to destroy – and that were hammered again by a decade of austerity.

“It means homes that people can actually afford to live in, not investment opportunities for landlords that sit empty while thousands of children are homeless.

“But this is not just about policies.

"We have got to change how the Labour party operates, how it talks and how it relates to the people and communities that we seek to serve and represent.

"For too long, the people we are here to represent have felt that we are distant from them and their lives.

"I know this is the case because it’s my mates that I grew up with – and who are working minimum wage jobs – that we need to speak to and speak for again.

“For too long we have given off an air of talking down to people and telling people what they need, or even what they should want or what they should think.

"There has been too much of Labour doing things for people and communities, and not enough doing things with people and communities.

“Working-class people don’t want a handout or someone telling us what we should think.

"We want the opportunities to do it for ourselves.

“The Labour party was founded to represent and win power for working-class people.

"Our country has changed and our economy has changed, but that founding purpose has not changed.

"It’s only because of Labour and our trade union movement that I’ve gone from no GCSEs and a minimum-wage job to where I am today.

“So it is my responsibility now to make sure that we learn lessons and reconnect with the people and the places that we are here to fight for – and to make sure they know that we speak for them and that we are on their side.”

---

Do you have a story for us? Want to tell us about something going on in and around Oldham? Let us know by emailing news@oldham-chronicle.co.uk , calling our Oldham-based newsroom on 0161 633 2121 , tweeting us @oldhamchronicle or messaging us through our Facebook page. All contact will be treated in confidence.