Wisecracking Angela Rayner delivers a masterclass in political satire

After demolishing Michael Gove’s measures to combat extremism, Labour’s deputy leader spent the day regaling the Westminster press pack with jokes at the Tories’ expense. Dominic Raab’s ears will have been burning, says Joe Murphy

Knock knock: Deputy Labour leader Angela Rayner (PA Wire)

All in all, it was a pretty good day for Angela Rayner. She was note perfect replying to Michael Gove in the Commons, and breezed off in a Carrie Johnson-style dress to a press gallery lunch, where she told some quite good jokes (and some stinkers), and won some new admirers.

Along the way, she neatly dropped a little news bomblet about wanting Diane Abbott to get back the Labour whip, an almost-loyal intervention that upped the pressure on Keir Starmer a teeny bit without actually causing ructions.

And when the first question came about whether she dodged a grand’s worth of capital gains tax on a house sale a few years back came up, she dead-batted it like a pro. Nothing to see here, nothing to pay.