Right-Wing Media Watch: The right’s relentless campaign against Angela Rayner is as boring as it is predictable

They despised her as deputy PM, and they despise her as a potential successor to Keir Starmer.

With Starmer’s leadership hanging in the balance, right-wing commentators have scarcely concealed their panic at the prospect of Angela Rayner rising further in power.

Writing for GB News, columnist Carole Malone launched a deeply personal attack, deriding Rayner as “thick-as-mince” and mocking her lifestyle in terms that strayed far beyond legitimate political critique.

Portraying Rayner as not just politically wrong, but as intellectually unfit, morally suspect, and socially out of place, the column escalated into a claim that Rayner is “power-mad,” manipulated by allies, and would “destroy” both government and country if she ever reached the top job. 

Such ‘outrage’ might carry more weight if it came from unimpeachable sources. Yet Malone herself has faced repeated controversy. While writing for the News of the World in 2009, she claimed illegal immigrants received “free cars,” prompting a published correction and apology. In 2012, appearing on This Morning, she suggested a family were partly to blame for the deaths of six children in a Derbyshire arson attack as they received state benefits, benefits which she felt drew resentment from the local community, describing the tragedy as “an accident waiting to happen.” In 2025, she repeated unverified online claims about Meghan Markle’s mother on GB News, allegations that were widely challenged.

Nor is Malone alone in pushing such personal hostility about Rayner. Dan Hodges struck a similar chord, declaring that “those who care about Britain must make sure she is never PM,” while recounting an alleged incident in a Commons bar to question Rayner’s conduct. He even attempted to pre-empt accusations of bias by pointing to other working-class women in Labour whom he argues would be more suitable.

Yet this defence can be ripped apart. Angela Rayner has, for years, been singled out. In fact, she’s been the target of one of the most sustained and aggressive media campaigns in recent political memory.

Consider her resignation as deputy prime minister and housing secretary. Within an hour of her announcement, the Telegraph circulated a message to readers claiming credit for her downfall, with a headline declaring: “How the Telegraph led to Rayner’s downfall.” The triumphalism echoed the infamous “It’s The Sun Wot Won It” claim after the 1992 general election.

Meanwhile, Hodges himself hasn’t been immune from criticism either. Far from it. The columnist was recently accused of “grotesque hypocrisy” after launching a furious attack over Peter Mandelson’s appointment as US ambassador, an appointment he himself once enthusiastically endorsed.

The latest assault on Rayner is the same weary pattern, a brand of commentary resting on the calculation that the most cutting, personal attack will win the most attention. The trouble is, repetition has drained it of any real impact, and what remains isn’t incisive or persuasive, just painfully boring.