Only elected to Parliament in 2015, Angela Rayner was hastily appointed to the shadow education brief in the wake of the mass parliamentary revolt against Jeremy Corbyn last July. Yet Rayner is not the usual tribal leftist. She has praised the impact of the Blair governments and is known to be liked by Labour MPs on all wings of the party.
This, combined with her unashamed working-class roots and impressive performances in the shadow education brief has led to Rayner being tipped as a possible successor to Corbyn. That may be some time off, but there is every chance Rayner could find herself as Secretary of State in the next few years, with responsibility for implementing a free tuition policy. Yet Rayner’s main passion is not universities (she did not go to university herself) but instead FE and early years education and she has expressed frustration at how HE dominates the debate at the expense of other parts of education. Rayner is someone who anyone with a long-term interest in influencing education policy should be seeking to get the ear of.