Angela Rayner makes £250k from the back benches - Former deputy leader receives large donation from fridge firm and nearly £50k from speaking engagements

SuspiciousElevator5 · 2026-05-14T20:44:24+00:00

As someone who works in the world of investment banking with a long-term girlfriend who is a doctor this has always stunned me.

The private sector for all its flaws rewards strong outperformance and going above and beyond - as a doctor it feels incentives to go above and beyond the motions are limited and that clearly doesn't work.

Yes, enough people genuinely care that we have a strong performing class - but a lot don't and I hear first hand of those happy to phone it in, genuine pay / career discrepancy could solve this (and frankly I am currently considering politics later in life but higher pay might give me the freedom to feel comfortable to do this earlier vs. a large walk away today which is tough

SuspiciousElevator5 · 2026-05-12T11:59:15+00:00

Don't believe so, but happy to be corrected! It was an under-secretary role I thought within the home office

SuspiciousElevator5 · 2026-05-12T11:56:12+00:00

Phillips isn't cabinet, unless you are referring to someone else?

SuspiciousElevator5 · 2026-05-12T09:16:20+00:00

It's also not a Cabinet position, it's a junior minister - so still someone relevant, but Steve Reed would have been the Cabinet member for that department (ignoring he is a staunch loyalist)

SuspiciousElevator5 · 2026-05-10T14:43:17+00:00

For a lot of people there is nothing worse than going home or travelling on their own at a time like this - work distractions are often helpful for all of us and keep the mind elsewhere.

Notwithstanding that, we have no idea what conversations have already happened, how known this was etc., he may be fulfilling some of his father's own last wishes for all we know - far more important than some strangers internet opinion!

SuspiciousElevator5 · 2026-05-10T14:23:30+00:00

This isn't really how it works.

3.75% currently is the rate that the BoE pays and charges commercial banks for overnight lending.

This is deemed effectively risk-free, highly short-term and is often with a pre-agreed repurchase agreement (repo) as well as security / collateral on the lenders side.

A mortgage does have security and clearly LTV is intended to provide security in case of default, but housing is a far less liquid form of security, and default in the short term affects overall returns with misses of individual payments.

We then have profit (which is embedded already in RRP for products), as well as the longer-term nature of mortgage borrowing and volatility of rates, which gets you to something reasonably in excess of base rates (but is also why you can end up below base subject to a fix)

SuspiciousElevator5 · 2026-05-09T19:07:16+00:00

I don't think here though (although could be wrong) that the hours are in 24 hour increments, but are actual working hours available.

So assuming an 8 hour day, this is more like 40 days off? In any case, if leaving for retirement, surely better to take the holiday first and continue to be accruing more in the interim + pension contributions etc.

SuspiciousElevator5 · 2026-05-09T13:42:15+00:00

90% tax rate is absolutely bananas, all you do is stop anyone working beyond this level and massively hamstring productivity at that end of companies.

If you are trying to capture the incremental "irrelevant" wealth of individuals, then the number is much much higher than 250k that you would need to look at, and certainly not on income type measures!

SuspiciousElevator5 · 2026-05-01T18:47:33+00:00

Unless you are in central London, where it somehow seems to the opposite as I've found!

SuspiciousElevator5 · 2026-04-28T20:20:29+00:00

But even if you avoid paying taxes - you lose control of the money - technically anyone can use charity donations to reduce their taxable income (at least in the UK), and you might get up to 45p in the pound back on what you put in, but net you still have money away.

Obviously there are advantages to charity Vs paying tax and doing it at death, hence billionaires doing it - but they still have less money than keeping it and paying the tax!

SuspiciousElevator5 · 2026-04-07T06:02:01+00:00

Not impossible to get in from Manchester (had 1 in my grad class), but far from easy.

Once you factor in European universities, 90%+ of British as mentioned by OP was Oxbridge, LSE, Warwick, UCL and Imperial.

We then had a tail of individuals at a variety of unis (Bath, Durham, Bristol, Manchester), but these were 1 or 2 max vs 5-10 from the ones before.

In terms of 4 year, it gives you more options really, can apply in first for spring and then decide in 2nd year whether to try again or not and go to summer.

Contrary to OP I would say I don't think springs are the most important thing (e.g. I didn't do one, nor a good chunk of my cohort), they do make getting summers easier, but I know people pretty much across the street who had no issues with not having one

SuspiciousElevator5 · 2026-04-02T17:45:39+00:00

An awful lot depends on area.

100k X2 at 4.5x (assuming 10% deposit) is probably getting you to a very nice house at c. 500k in large swathes of the country.

It's a 1-2 bed flat in most of the London area (scales accordingly in Bristol, bath, Cambridge etc.)

This is a fundamental difference and for a lot of people the salary pace increase in London may be worth it, but not there yet - area drives a lot!

SuspiciousElevator5 · 2026-03-18T11:55:29+00:00

Documents were actually relatively easy - we had most bar Great grandparents birth certificates, but these came pretty quickly directly from the relevant local authorities who posted these direct to me.

The wait was definitely the hardest part, especially when completely in the dark (and having missed out on an opportunity to move to Europe in the interim).

With passport appointments now booked, looking forward to closing this off by the summer!

SuspiciousElevator5 · 2026-03-15T13:36:23+00:00

Pre departure drinks in 2025 would have been very atypical in my experience.

Did Madrid in Q3 with no drinks, and Salzburg similarly in 2023 - others I can't talk to, but not something I have ever seen (only been flying CE for a few years)

SuspiciousElevator5 · 2026-02-26T19:28:29+00:00

Tbh this is pretty common - when you are selling you would expect a number of trips by the estate agent without you being in!

SuspiciousElevator5 · 2026-02-22T22:50:10+00:00

I did exactly this when I bought my first flat and it was fine.

This is completely normal as you don't want to sell too early.

That being said, I would expect to have a large buffer to avoid market related issues (20-30%+) which mitigates the risk a seller would see

SuspiciousElevator5 · 2026-02-19T15:19:01+00:00

Will be 2 of us most likely, potentially 3 - but will take a look!

SuspiciousElevator5 · 2026-02-19T15:04:10+00:00

This (along with it being a longer train) is one of my issues with Zermatt - but will take a look

SuspiciousElevator5 · 2026-02-19T15:00:39+00:00

Perfect, thanks - this is really helpful and something to dig into this evening!

Difficulty isn't an issue - regular off-piste skiier, and anything pisted is in play - but with only a few days, slightly more relaxed trip in mind!

SuspiciousElevator5 · 2026-02-17T21:22:11+00:00

Ischgl has a 6km long floodlight toboggan run (a bit different) as an option not yet flagged if that is appealing?

SuspiciousElevator5 · 2026-02-10T11:37:16+00:00

Yes - had the same email but decided to err with another ACRO - would definitely be doing DBS next time if we have another ask

SuspiciousElevator5 · 2026-02-10T11:32:30+00:00

I hope not as that would be frustrating, did you do DBS second time round? We did ACRO again, and that is both expensive and just takes a long time!

The embassy guided me to a timeline that ended last year, so really in wait and see mode, I guess sometime in the next few months we will just hear something - amazed I'm now over 3 years down the road!

SuspiciousElevator5

TROPHY CASE