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Angela Rayner is a British Labour politician who has been the Member of Parliament for Ashton-under-Lyne since 2015. She has been Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government since July 2026, a post she also held from 2024 to 2025, when she was Deputy Prime Minister. She was deputy leader of the Labour Party from 2020 to 2025.
Role at the time: Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, speaking at the TUC Congress
Condemned
Statement summary
Speaking at the TUC Congress, Rayner criticized Reform UK for comparing its donations from two crypto billionaires to trade union members' contributions to Labour, and described the donors as offshore billionaires trying to buy democracy.
“How dare they try to compare money from a couple of crypto billionaires to union members’ subs? The most highly regulated political funding we can have ... It couldn’t be more different from a couple of offshore billionaires trying to buy our democracy.”
Open source (opens in a new tab)Union leaders resist political donations cap after Reform given £72m · The GuardianFull article; Rayner's TUC remarks and the Downing Street statement on residency rules
Why we used this label
The reference point is Reform UK's acceptance of the two 36 million pound donations from Ben Delo and Christopher Harborne in September 2026. Condemned: Rayner describes the donors as offshore billionaires trying to buy democracy and rejects Reform's comparison with union funding, a criticism of the donations the party accepted. The closest competing label is Challenged characterization; it loses because she does more than dispute Reform's comparison: she criticizes the donations themselves.
Read how Nigel Farage, the two donors, union leader Paul Nowak, Labour, Liberal Democrat and Conservative politicians and a transparency campaigner responded after Reform UK accepted 36 million pounds each from Ben Delo and Christopher Harborne in September 2026.
