'She never rings me': Angela Rayner interrupted by mother's phone call during media interview

Watch: Angela Rayner gets called by her mother during media interview

Politicians are accustomed to interruptions while trying to get their message across, but not usually from their own mother.

However, that was the challenge faced by Angela Rayner on Sunday in the middle of a media interview.

The Labour deputy leader was talking to a journalist from Channel 4 News when she received a phone call from her mother, Lynn Bowen.

Rayner, who is also the shadow levelling up secretary, had earlier delivered a speech at the Labour Party conference in Liverpool in which she pledged to deliver more workers' rights and an increase in affordable housing if her party wins the next general election.

Later, during a round of media interviews, she was called by her mother, who had phoned to congratulate her daughter on her speech after seeing it on TV.

When Rayner answered the call on speaker phone, Bowen could be heard saying: "I turned it on and there you were... again!"

Read more on the Labour Party:

• Angela Rayner says next Labour government will make misogyny a ‘hate crime’ (The Independent)

• Labour promises housing boost with reforms to green belt (Yorkshire Post)

• Who is Angela Rayner? The story behind the country's possible next deputy PM (Sky News)

Rayner replies: "Mum, I'm in the middle of a media round."

She then turns to the interviewer and said: "Me mum never rings me, something must be really up with her."

Talking to her mother, she continues: "Right, I'll give you a ring back when I've finished the media round, alright?"

Bowen responds: "You're all right, I was just congratulating you, you did well."

Before ending the call, Rayner adds: "Thank you, all right, I'll speak to you in about 20 minutes, I'm just on the media now, thanks, bye."

Rayner then tells the interviewer: "My mum never ever rings me. And she's never up in the morning.

"She's going to Llandudno, that's why she's up, because she's never up in the morning anyway."

Rayner posted a clip of the exchange on X, formerly known as Twitter, saying: "She never rings me... and then..."

Rayner has previously spoken about her relationship with her mother, who has bipolar disorder.

In an interview with ITV News in February 2020, Rayner revealed that, as a child, she was forced to become her mother's carer, looking after Bowen as she struggled with depression and suicidal thoughts, at one point admitting her to a mental health ward.

In her speech to her party's conference on Sunday, Rayner promised to implement Labour's plan to bolster workers’ rights within 100 days of taking office.

“We’ll ban zero-hour contracts, and fire-and-rehire, and give workers basic rights from day one," she said.

“We’ll go further and faster in closing the gender pay gap, make work more family-friendly, and tackle sexual harassment."

Rayner said, if elected into government, her party would reform the planning system to speed up building new social and affordable homes, as well as seeking to strengthen renters’ rights.

“The Labour government took me from a council estate to the parliamentary estate," she said.

“Labour will achieve rental reform where the Tories have failed for four and a half years, finishing the job by banning ‘no fault’ evictions.

“We will deliver planning reform to build the houses the next generation so desperately needs.”