Warm, real and raucous: no wonder the Tories (and 12 detectives) are out to get Angela Rayner

Setting the attack dogs on the deputy Labour leader shows us just how much she is feared, says Alan Rusbridger – and if she resigns, it will only be a victory for cowardly Conservative hypocrites able to afford more elaborate tax arrangements

Oceans of ink have already been spilt in pursuit of whatever Rayner did or didn’t pay, in terms of capital gains tax or otherwise, on a modest property in Stockport (Victoria Jones/PA)

Well, of course Angela Rayner should pay any tax she neglected, forgot, or otherwise avoided paying a number of years ago – if that did happen. But that’s not really what this is about, is it?

Do you remember “Beergate”? For weeks the Johnson government was on the ropes over a torrent of revelations about the apparent non-stop hedonism at Downing Street while the rest of us were obediently doing what we were told.

And then a smudgy video emerged of Keir Starmer appearing to enjoy a bottle of lager and a takeaway curry after a day of campaigning in Durham. Cue a tsunami of front-page outrage, a police investigation, howls of hypocrisy. And then… nothing. The Durham police found there was an empty void behind the headlines.