Angela Rayner’s mum has spoken publicly for the first time about her daughter’s traumatic childhood looking after her.
The Labour deputy leadership favourite acted as Lynn Bowen’s permanent carer from the age of just 10.
This included having to get her mother, who suffered from severe depression, sectioned during a suicide attempt.
Ms Bowen ended up impoverished and struggling to feed her daughter and her two siblings.
In an interview with ITV News, she admitted: “I was in a very dark place, she used to bath me, look after me, feed me. If it wasn’t for her I don’t think I’d be here today.
“I was really depressed and suicidal, [Angela] had me sectioned once…because I cut my wrists, took the tablets, [she] had to get the police and the ambulance.”
Shadow education secretary Ms Rayner said: “I remember being scared, remember staying at the bottom of my mum’s bed once, thinking is my mum going to do something, and not wanting to go to sleep.
“I didn’t want to go to sleep and think my mum wouldn’t be there in the morning, and that was quite traumatic.”
Ms Bowen admitted her daughter “had it rough” and that she sometimes gets “upset with the way that Angie had to grow up pretty fast”.
But she added: “Watch this space, my daughter will be running this country in a few years’ time. I am so proud of her, I really am.”
Labour leadership frontrunner Keir Starmer refused to say whether he would offer Mr Corbyn a job in his top team if he wins the contest.
The shadow Brexit secretary insisted yesterday he had “not discussed the shadow cabinet with anybody” when pressed over his plans.
Mr Corbyn said last week that he would serve in his successor’s shadow cabinet if they asked him to.
Mr Starmer’s rival for the top job Becky Long-Bailey has previously suggested she would offer him a job.
It comes as Labour members start voting for the next Labour leader and deputy who will be tasked with recovering the party from its catastrophic general election defeat.
Mr Starmer also pledged to give top shadow cabinet jobs to his two rivals Ms Long-Bailey and Ms Nandy.
NOTE: This article originally included some comments made by Ms Rayner which have been removed as their context was unclear.
