Name: Angela Rayner

Age: 36

Who is she? After a tumultuous couple of weeks for Labour, which saw two of her predecessors – Lucy Powell and Pat Glass – resign, she was announced as the party’s new shadow education secretary on Friday afternoon.

She is combining the brief with a role as the equalities spokesperson, mirroring Nicky Morgan’s two hats in government as secretary of state for education and minister for women and equalities.

Another one of these Oxbridge types then? Not at all, before being elected as the MP for Ashton-under-Lyne in the 2015 general election, Rayner was a care worker for Stockport council. She became a trade union rep for Unison and was then promoted to senior steward.

The Guardian profiled her work at the trade union for a piece on the day in the life of a union official in 2012.

What does she think about education? Well, in her relatively short time in parliament, Rayner has never broken the party whip on an education vote.

In May 2016, she spoke out against the government’s plans laid out in the Queen’s Speech. Although Labour lost the vote, she won plaudits from commentators and education professionals for her speech, where she outlined how grinding poverty and deprivation had affected her experience of school, saying:

“I was a NEET – not in education, employment or training – and I had no GCSEs at grade A to C; and, as I said, I had a baby at 16. School, for me, was not a place where you went to be educated, but a place where you got away from your parents for a couple of hours while they got some respite from you, and where you were able to see your mates...

“My mum could not read or write, so it was difficult for her to give me the ability to be school-ready.”

A passionate defender of the Sure Start programme, Rayner cites its support as essential in supporting her back into education as a young single mother.

She has also cross-examined ministers on teacher retention and the effect of stress and workload on teachers leaving the profession.

All work and no play? Not quite – as a recent addition to the commons not much is known about Rayner’s personal life.

However, she did find herself in hot water last November, when she used House of Commons headed paper to write a complaint to a shop owner after failing to get her hands on a pair of Star Wars themed heels.

In her own words: “I’m the only member of the house, who at age 16, and pregnant, was told in no uncertain terms, I’d never amount to anything. If only they could see me now.”

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