But the public stood by me

Angela Rayner on that vape picture: 'It was put out there to shame, but the public stood by me'

Angela Rayner has hit out at attempts to shame her and portray her as a chav in the right-wing press.

The senior Cabinet minister said an image of her vaping on a kayak in Hove last summer - just weeks before her resignation from Keir Starmer's Cabinet - was "put out there to shame me" but backfired.

Appearing on The Mirror's new Youtube show Sense Check, Ms Rayner said she had been out to celebrate after youngest son's GCSEs at the time. She said: "I had a vape and there was an iconic picture of me.

iconic

adjective

very famous or popular, especially being considered to represent particular opinions or a particular time:

• iconic status John Lennon gained iconic status following his death.
• iconic image The gunfight is the single most iconic image of the Wild West.
• The film Casablanca won three Academy Awards, and its characters, dialogue, and music have become iconic.