𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

Angela Rayner raked in £19,000 for a speaking engagement, it has emerged. The Labour grandee and former deputy prime minister, who quit in a row over her tax affairs, received the amount for a speech she gave at a dinner for the Management Consultancies Association earlier this month.

It was for 5 hours and 45 minutes of work, according to her register of interests, which works out to £58 per minute. Further disclosures are expected in the future, when she will be forced to reveal how much she was paid for her BNP Paribas call with City investors, a forthcoming speech to estate agents at a property conference, and the advance on her memoirs.

Allies told The Times that the total will exceed £100,000 and be enough to pay off any fine from HMRC and stamp duty due.

Ms Rayner resigned as deputy PM, housing secretary and deputy Labour leader last year, following a furore over her underpayment of stamp duty on a new seaside flat.

She has since been widely seen as a possible successor to Sir Keir Starmer amid rumblings of a potential leadership challenge following the May local elections, as both Labour’s poll ratings and the Prime Minister’s personal approval have plummeted.

Ms Rayner fuelled speculation when she warned earlier this month that Labour is “running out of time” to deliver change.

In a speech at an event by campaign group Mainstream, she said: “As a party, and as a movement, we cannot hide, we cannot just go through the motions in the face of decline.

“There’s no safe ground and we’re running out of time.

“The change that people wanted so desperately needs to be seen, it needs to be felt, and we have to show that it is a Labour government that will deliver it.”