Angela Rayner placed on spot by BBC’s Nick Robinson over Labour U-turns

Angela Rayner was placed on the spot by the BBC’s Nick Robinson over a sequence of Labour U-turns.

The Radio 4 Today programme host grilled the deputy Labour chief about flip-flops on the two-child profit cap, Sadiq Khan’s extremely low emission zone (ULEZ) enlargement and trans rights.

Mr Robinson repeatedly requested Sir Keir Starmer’s deputy, who was in Newcastle to advertise inexperienced plans, if she had misplaced her nerve.

He started by asking Ms Rayner about Labour backtracking on scrapping the two-child profit cap.

He stated: “You used to call the two-child cap on benefits ‘inhumane’ and ‘obscene’ but you now say that Labour will keep it. Have you lost your nerve?”

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Ms Rayner replied: “Not at all no.”

She went on: “In direct challenge to what you said there, our priority is to give free breakfast clubs and to use the ending of the non-dom status, the tax loophole, to fund breakfast clubs because a kid like me who was on free school meals lunchtime was the first time I got to eat in a day.

“So we all know that breakfast would have the most important affect for kids going into faculty and we all know that may be the higher means of spending that cash.

“So it’s about priority as opposed to us saying that we agree with what the Tories did.

“The Tories crashed the financial system and we’re not going to have the funding, definitely within the first interval, to do every thing {that a} Labour authorities would need to.

“That doesn’t mean to say, however, that we wouldn’t do things differently and people wouldn’t see the difference.”

Mr Robinson then turned to the ULEZ enlargement to all London boroughs, which was broadly blamed for Labour’s loss within the Uxbridge and South Ruislip by-election.

Sir Keir earlier this week criticised the widening of the £12.50 each day cost for probably the most polluting automobiles in a bid to enhance air high quality for “disproportionately” hitting individuals throughout the price of residing disaster.

And the Labour chief has deserted proposals to roll out comparable schemes throughout the UK.

The BBC presenter stated: “The reason I asked you whether you’d lost your nerve is take the issue of being green which you’re highlighting today.

“Keir Starmer now tells us that he is in opposition to clear air schemes in cities in the event that they disproportionately affect individuals. In different phrases, if individuals on decrease incomes are anticipated to pay quite a bit to drive their vehicles and vans he is now not in favour of that.

“So have you lost your nerve on the importance of clean air in cities?”

Ms Rayner replied: “Well again this is a different issue and this is about clean air because the health of our young people and the health of people in those cities, we have to do something about that.

“That is a legislation to do it, the Government know that, Boris Johnson launched ULEZ in London, we all know we have now to do this.

“But the challenge is if we’re just going to bring it in and people aren’t going to have a scrappage scheme which means they can change their vehicle to comply, then all it is is you’re just going to charge people, you’re not going to clean up the air because people will still be driving the old vehicles because they can’t update them.

“So the purpose that Keir was making and Labour has made, and Sadiq has listened and is making an attempt to do his greatest regardless of what the Government is doing, is to present individuals the chance to vary their car, to conform, to make our streets safer by bringing down these emissions in metropolis centres the place we have now dangerously excessive ranges inflicting public well being issues.”

Mr Robinson said people are “noticing the adjustments that the chief of the Labour Party is making”.

He said: “Let’s offer you one other instance, you had been fairly passionate concerning the case for trans rights, you stated they weren’t in battle with ladies’s rights.

“You’ve now changed your party’s position to be pretty close to what the Conservatives are saying in acknowledging that on occasion they are in conflict with women’s rights.

“So I ask you on that one, have you ever misplaced your nerve on that?”

The deputy Labour leader replied: “Again no and I nonetheless stand by they aren’t in battle with ladies’s rights. We’ve talked concerning the Gender Recognition Act, we have talked about reform, we have talked about course of.

“Of course, there has to be a process for people that is supportive and that’s when you get into the weeds of how you ensure we do have trans rights that are compatible and compassionate and humane.

“At the second the method is not and we have acknowledged that there are issues with the method and subsequently there needs to be a course of that recognises individuals can transition and that we do this in a means that’s supportive of these individuals.

“We’ve also in the Equalities Act that the Labour government introduced had the safeguards for women-only spaces, and that’s absolutely appropriate. And we’ve seen the conflict of what happens when those safeguards are not put in place.”

Mr Robinson went on to ask Ms Rayner if she ever says no to Sir Keir.

She insisted she did earlier than describing their relationship as like an “arranged marriage”.

She stated: “We were both elected by the membership differently and independently, and we’ve worked constructively together and we continue to do so because me and Keir both know that we need a Labour government and we need that change in this country.”