Rayner Just Gave the UK Establishment Another Black Eye

The practices of British political scandal used to be that Conservative ministers resigned after sexual escapades that conflicted with their party’s family values rhetoric, whereas Labour bigwigs quit over financial shenanigans that couldn’t be reconciled with their ritual denunciations of capitalist greed.

Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner’s admission that she underpaid £40,000 ($54,000) in stamp duty on a property on the south coast conforms to the old Labour stereotype. In opposition, Rayner led attacks on Tory “scum,” as she called them, who gamed their taxes. Now she has been forced to resign after a government watchdog ruled she had breached the ministerial code. Keir Starmer’s year-old government has lost one of its few popular members, and his attempt to make a fresh start has been overshadowed by a fresh crisis. His Cabinet reshuffle — former Foreign (now Justice) Secretary David Lammy takes Rayner’s title as DPM — is unlikely to change the doomy mood music.