Angela Rayner has told how seeing her premature baby fight for his life gave her a new perspective as she vowed never to walk away from frontline politics. Opening up about the painful episode in her career, the Labour heavyweight was forced to resign from the heart of government over her tax affairs.
Ms Rayner - who returned to Cabinet in Andy Burnham's new administration in July - said the "rollercoaster of hell" experience with the traumatic premature birth of her second son at just 23 weeks had given her an "anchor". She said against the odds she had walked out of the hospital after nine months with her "miracle son" Charlie in 2008, saying to herself: "If not thing else good comes in my life, I've banked that [luck], I'm having it."
Tax affairs described as 'mortifying'
Speaking to The Mirror's new YouTube show, Sense Check, Ms Rayner described the saga over her tax affairs that brought an abrupt end to her time in Keir Starmer's Cabinet as "mortifying". She said: "It was also to do with my son and his disability and what's going on for him - and I'm very private about my kids because they go through a lot. My son was at an age where he was 17 - just about to turn 18 - and he'd just started work and it was wall-to-wall coverage of his mum."
"There was press coverage implying that I'd done something to try and take my son's money or I'd done something that was to try to set something up that was try and get around rules, which was, it just wasn't the case."
In a move that rocked the Labour Party last summer, Ms Rayner was forced to resign as Deputy Prime Minister and Housing Secretary over £40,000 in unpaid stamp duty on her second home in Hove, East Sussex. But seven months later she was cleared by HMRC of deliberate wrongdoing or carelessness over her tax affairs - paving the way for her return to the Cabinet.
'I lucked out that day'
Asked whether she ever thought she wouldn't come back into frontline politics or consider just walking away, Ms Rayner told presenter Nicola Thorp: "Not walking away because I think there's a lot of people....that go through a lot more hardship."
Describing her own personal hell, she added: "I remember when my son was born at 23 weeks and I was told that we need to switch the machine off because there's nothing more they can do for him. And I remember seeing on that neonatal unit, lots of families come out of there without a child. I came out of with my son, against all odds.
"Compared to what happened to me or what was going on at the time, I banked every bit of luck that moment in my life. And that's where I think, you know what, people go through things like that every single day and they struggle."
"So my struggle, when you look at it like that, it puts it into perspective. It's like, you what, I lucked out that day. That moment, I walked out of St. Mary's [a specialist neonatal unit], I was like, you know, what, if nothing else good comes in my live, I've banked that I'm having it. And it gives you an anchor when you've been through hardship and you've being through things like that it kind of gives you a perspective especially in the Westminster side of things you know 'I've got a bad headline in the Daily Mail' it's like okay, well that's nothing."
On the nine months she spent in hospital, Ms Rayner, who was a single mum with her first son Ryan, went on: "That was a rollercoaster of hell, a rollercoaster of hell." But she later added: "I feel like I lucked out. Because I've got three beautiful children. They're all amazing. My three Gen Zs, as I call them, my three boys. And they're all doing incredibly well. I'm very lucky."
'Humbling' return to limelight
In the interview, Ms Rayner also described the "humbling" moment she returned to the limelight at the Labour conference in September as a Cabinet minister. She told delegates gathered in the conference hall at the time: "I don't often cry, but nearly. It's so good to be back".
Ms Rayner told Sense Check it was an emotional moment, saying: "You could feel the love in the room". She added: "When I went on the stage... and sat down I could hear the delegates talking about some really important issues around housing and a delegate on women's rights."
"And I was, kind of like, it was nice to be there and actually the room wasn't that full. At that point when I sat on the stage I was thinking there's not many people here and the Cabinet — we're all in Cabinet. So none of my colleagues were sat there either so I was empty chaired by the Cabinet because they were in Cabinet to be fair and then the hall wasn't as packed but then all of a sudden within like 10 minutes the hall was rammed just before I was getting up."
"So it was just like wow people have turned out to listen to me and it just was really humbling and that's when I kind of said that when I stood up and I could feel the energy in the room."
