Angela Rayner lays down a marker in her first outing as sleazefinder-general

Labour’s deputy leader has made her debut as the aggressive attacker of Conservative conflicts of interest, writes John Rentoul

Angela Rayner intends to press the attack on ‘Tory sleaze’ (UK Parliament/AFP/Getty)

Penny Mordaunt is about to publish a book called Greater: Britain After the Storm, which looks like one of those collections of platitudes published by US politicians considering a presidential election run.

As defence secretary, she was a potential candidate to succeed Theresa May, but didn’t, in the end, put her name forward in the leadership contest, backing Jeremy Hunt instead. Despite that, she was brought back into government by Boris Johnson in February last year, as paymaster general, an antique ministerial post just below cabinet level.

Her responsibilities are nebulous, but include deputising for Michael Gove and Lord Frost, two cabinet ministers who are also based in the Cabinet Office, and so she was in the Commons today to answer a question for Gove asked by Angela Rayner.