Top News

There are "more important questions out there" than those relating to the appointment of Lord Peter Mandelson as US Ambassador, Angela Rayner has said. Speaking at an event in central London the former deputy prime minister joked with attendees saying that she had been "glued to my live feed this morning, hanging on every word".

She went on to say: "And I refer, of course, to your panel, Louise Hague and Chris Curtis."

Referring to the latest developments in the Mandelson scandal, which saw the sacked Mandarin, Sir Olly Robbins, give evidence before a committee in Westminster, Ms Rayner added: "I'll let this sink in to any journalists that are here. There's some more important questions out there, and it's on that note that I want to just take a moment at the end of the day to reflect on why all this matters, and to the world outside and beyond the bubble."

Ms Rayner's comments drew criticism from the Conservative Party, with a spokesman saying she had "done a superb job of looking like she doesn't want to talk about Mandelson while talking quite a lot about Mandelson". The Lord Mandelson scandal is, according to polls done by the More In Common, one of the most widely read news stories in the country.

Sir Keir has been left battling the scandal after the former Labour peer's relationship with the American pedophile Jeffrey Epstein came out. The Prime Minister, who once had Ms Rayner has his deputy before she was ousted over her tax affairs, is facing calls to resign over allegations he misled parliament over the extent of his knowledge about the peers' failure to secure vetting.

The Conservative Party spokesman told the Daily Express: "I'm sure No10 will be delighted that Rayner is telling journalists to focus on the many different ways the Prime Minister has taken his eye off the ball."

At her event in London the Ashton-under-Lyne MP said: "Right now, ordinary people feel that their lives are too hard and that the basics of a good life are unaffordable." She added: "They suspect that this is because of an economy and a system that is rigged in favour of vested interests, and they're right."

Ms Rayner went on to blast the affordability crisis saying it had been "decades in the making, over and over ordinary people feel that they've paid the price for every crisis, the financial crash, austerity, Brexit, Covid."

The senior Labour MP is widely seen as a frontrunner to replace Sir Keir, should such an opportunity arise. Andy Burnham, who tried to reenter parliament but was blocked from doing so by Sir Keir, went to see her this weekend - and was snapped doing so by a national newspaper.