Angela Rayner
UK Deputy Prime Minister and Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government
Angela Rayner is the UK’s Deputy Prime Minister and Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government. She was born Angela Bowen on 28 March 1980 in Stockport and grew up on a council estate. She left school at 16 with no GCSEs after becoming pregnant, later completed care qualifications, and worked as a care worker for Stockport Council. She became a Unison trade-union representative and then entered elected politics as a Stockport councillor.
Rayner was elected MP for Ashton-under-Lyne at the 2015 general election. In opposition she served as Shadow Minister for Pensions, Shadow Secretary of State for Education, Shadow Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, and Shadow Deputy Prime Minister. She was elected Deputy Leader of the Labour Party in 2020, and after Labour’s 2024 general-election victory she was appointed to her current cabinet role.
Her gambling-industry relevance is positional rather than personal: as Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government she controls the planning framework that determines where high-street betting shops can operate. Premises licensing decisions sit with the Gambling Commission and local licensing authorities rather than with her department.