Angela Rayner, the former deputy prime minister, has revealed she is a skilled car mechanic who can fix almost any motor. The 46-year-old Labour MP said she is a dab hand with a spanner and can sort out everything from dodgy clutches to squeaky brakes.
Ms Rayner, known for her eye-catching outfits and wacky shoe collection, said she can even give a car a full service. The self-proclaimed "petrolhead" once fashioned a makeshift engine part out of a cornflake box.
A Lifelong Passion for Tinkering
Ms Rayner, who grew up in working-class Manchester, said tinkering with cars "was a thing of mine". She said: "I used to do points, condensers, I can do a clutch, I can do brakes, brake pads, brake shoes.
"I can do a full service. I can do a full MOT, I used to do spark plugs things like that. I have even cut a rocker box gasket out of a cornflake box once."
However, she admitted that today's high-tech motors were enough to drive her round the bend. She moaned: "It's a lot harder now, you have to plug them in."
Other Politicians with Surprising Talents
She is not the only politician with a surprising talent up their sleeve. Former PM Boris Johnson famously revealed he liked making model buses out of old wine crates, complete with tiny passengers enjoying the ride.
Ex-Tory minister Penny Mordaunt once worked as a magician's assistant and former Health Secretary Matt Hancock previously trained as a jockey and won a horse race at Newmarket. Ex-Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has a rather unusual passion for manhole covers, taking snaps of them and researching their history.
Meanwhile, Labour's Darren Jones is an accomplished jazz saxophonist, while former SNP MP Pete Wishart once played keyboards for Scottish rock band Runrig.
Rayner on Cabinet Unity
Ms Rayner also sought to downplay reports of a Cabinet rift over Shabana Mahmood's immigration proposals and insisted she has "full confidence" in the Home Secretary's plans. The Housing Secretary said she is sure her colleague will "land" on a policy that is fair to both taxpayers and migrants, following a consultation on plans to lengthen the period before settled status can be claimed.
Speculation has mounted that proposals to extend the five-year wait for permanent residency by up to 10 years for foreign care workers could be watered down to avoid a Labour rebellion after criticism from senior MPs. Ms Rayner publicly attacked the prospect of backdating the plans earlier this year, while Energy Secretary Miatta Fahnbulleh reportedly hit out at any attempt to "prolong the time people have to wait for settlement" in a now-deleted online post.
Asked about Ms Fahnbulleh's comments, Ms Rayner told LBC: "They love saying those girls are all falling out, don't they? I mean, it's just not true. It's just not true."
