Labour’s Deputy Leader was engaging in the usual light-hearted banter that MPs of all parties indulge in when they feel the political spotlight is off them.
Standing among them – positioned by the balustrade that sits opposite the large double doors leading out to Parliament’s long Thameside terrace – was Angela Rayner. On a chilly evening just after the turn of the year, in between the evening votes, about a dozen MPs gathered in the House of Commons for a cigarette break.
