Rayner Admits She Threatened to Resign Over Impossible Housebuilding Target – Guido Fawkes

Rayner Admits She Threatened to Resign Over Impossible Housebuilding Target

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Angela Rayner has in parliament refused to deny claims she threatened to resign over missing her manifesto housing target. According to plugged-in sources in Lord Ashcroft’s biography of Starmer, Red Flag, “one occasion she threatened to resign because she felt she’d been set the impossible target of Labour building 1.5 million new homes.” The sources add that “it took a call from Tony Blair to talk her down.“ Guido identified Rayner’s issues with the ambitious target last summer…

In response to that Rayner’s team said at the time: “We do not recognise the claims made. Angela is proud to be serving as Deputy Prime Minister in Keir’s cabinet and delivering on Labour’s crystal clear commitment to build 1.5 million homes as part of our Plan for Change.” This is what is known as a thin-as-string denial…

In response to a written question from Kevin Hollinrake asking Rayner “whether she has had discussions with Tony Blair on the deliverability of the 1.5 million housebuilding target” her department replied: “The Deputy Prime Minister joined Tony Blair for a Q&A event in December 2024 at the Tony Blair Institute. This was an informal Q&A event which did not touch on details of government policy.” A non-denial, a swerve…

Reeves at the Spring Statement pinned much of the Labour’s required growth on Rayner’s housing policies. Despite Rayner’s enthusiasm for housing construction some in Labour see the 1.5 million manifesto target as a deliberate doomed-to-fail caper…