Dominic Raab has criticized Angela Rayner for attending the Glyndebourne Opera Festival, calling it proof that “champagne socialism has returned to the Labor Party.”
Replacing Boris Johnson, the deputy prime minister attacked the deputy leader of Labor after photographs of her appeared in the Sussex camp during last week’s rail strikes.
“Where was he when his teammates were at the picket last Thursday?” Raab asked, adding, “She was at the Glyndebourne music festival, drinking champagne.”
Mr Raab smiled and winked at his opposite number through the Commons mailbox as the couple struggled over tax hikes and government crackdown on loud protests.
Ms Rayner responded, saying Conservative ministers spent an evening last week “at the banquet table causing hundreds of thousands of people to be squeezed out of their donors”.
He also criticized Mr Raab for relaxing “on a lounger” as people fled Afghanistan last summer, a mistake that led to his dismissal as foreign secretary.
A No. 10 spokesman later denied that Mr. Raab’s criticism was an attack on a working-class woman, such as Mrs. Rayner, who enjoyed champagne and opera.
“The Prime Minister is clear that everyone should be able to enjoy art and culture and other similar things across the UK,” he said.
With the Prime Minister out of the NATO summit, Mrs Rayner mocked her MP over the disastrous blows of last week’s by-elections that have renewed Conservatives ’calls for a change at the top.
“The government lost two by-elections in one day, the first in three decades. It is not surprising that the prime minister has fled the country and left the honorable person in charge of the can “, he alleged.
“The people of Wakefield and Tiverton kept their own vote of censure. The prime minister is not only losing the room, he is also losing his country.
“But instead of showing a little humility, he intends to continue limping until the 2030s. So do you think the cabinet will support him for so long?
Mr Raab raised Mrs Rayner’s leadership ambitions and said: “I gently point out to her that we want this Prime Minister to go much longer than the Labor Party leader wants …”, before she was isolated.
He argued that the Conservatives still have “a working majority of 75” and that “we are focusing on compliance for the British people”.
The Deputy Prime Minister added: “We will protect the citizens from these harmful railway strikes, when we have the stage of Labor leaders joining the picket lines.”
Raab also mocked Labor for Keir Starmer confirming that he has broken the defeated 2019 election manifesto, arguing that this meant he has “no plans” after two years as leader.
“Tony Blair – in fact he has some experience in winning elections – says there is a big gap in Labor’s political offer and while she delights in it.”