What does Rayner’s leaked memo reveal about Labour?

A leak of a memo from Angela Rayner to Rachel Reeves reveals that the deputy prime minister would prefer a tax on the (relatively) wealthy than cuts in public services.

- SEAN O'GRADY

Not exactly a shocker, and hardly a surprise to the chancellor, but an interesting insight into the dynamics of government, and what this year’s public spending review and the autumn Budget may hold.

The leak comes just as the prime minister indicated a partial Uturn on the means testing of the pensioners’ winter fuel payment.

What does Rayner want?

She wants a little more social justice in fiscal policy. Specifically, last year she urged the chancellor to raise £3-4bn from miscellaneous tax hikes rather than, say, chopping disability benefit entitlements.

Her ideas were to: increase corporation tax on the banks; freeze the threshold on the 45 per cent income tax rate; eliminate the remaining (£500) tax-free allowance on dividend income; and limit the amount people can put into their pension funds before being taxed.

What did she get?