Labour under Starmer is a very middle-class operation. It doesn’t matter how often Starmer tells us he’s the “son of a toolmaker”, he belongs to the professional-managerial class, like most of the shadow cabinet.

Rayner, by contrast, is the real deal. She was raised on a council estate in Stockport where she cared for her mother, who has bipolar disorder, and left her local comprehensive aged 16, pregnant and with no qualifications.

She got a job as a care worker and was made union rep because in her own words: “I was mouthy and would take no messing from management.”

It’s easy to see why Labour activists love Rayner, which is why Starmer had to find something for her to do.

Former Prime Minister Tony Blair had the same problem with John Prescott, who had the working class credibility he lacked.

Blair made Prescott deputy PM, which is a position with no actual power, but sounds nice. It kept Prescott happy, anyway.

And it’s kept Rayner happy, too. Until now.

Unfortunately, the “mouthy” bit is coming back to haunt her.

As we know, Rayner takes no messing from management. The problem is, she’s the one in charge now.

And it doesn’t suit her.

Management involves making difficult decisions that will upset people, and that’s not easy when you’ve been shouting your mouth off on the other side of the fence.

The Winter Fuel Payment row is a brilliant example. Rayner has been put on the spot over an old social media post goading the Tories for plotting to slash support for pensioners’ fuel bills.

The problem is that the Tories didn’t scrap the Winter Fuel Payment. Labour did.

And Rayner’s awkward attempts to defend the policy on TV have left her squirming.

This isn’t the only way that Rayner’s big mouth is coming back to haunt her.

She’s now preparing to rip up Margaret Thatcher’s hugely popular Right-to-Buy policy, that’s allowed two million former council house dwellers to get on the property ladder and build some wealth.

One of their number was a certain Angela Rayner.

She made a whopping £48,500 profit from the flagship housing policy. Yet lately she’s been mouthing off about those who get “loads and loads of discount” when buying houses under Right-to-Buy

Now she’s preparing to pull up the ladder behind herself. Talk about hypocrisy.

The sight of Angela Rayner partying in Ibiza has annoyed many. Personally, I don’t have a problem with MPs letting their hair down on their hols.

But it isn’t a good look when a senior figure like Rayner does it days after her boss has made the rest of us feel miserable by telling us the country is falling apart.

It smacks of raving while Rome burns.

Rayner built her brand by mouthing off at the Tories, famously describing them as “scum”.

Yet here she is, defending a government that has stripped support from two million of the poorest pensioners, while blocking a route out of poverty for millions more in social housing.

Rayner is the management now. So she shouldn’t be surprised if people start mouthing off at her.