UK politics live: Rayner insists Labour members in US using ‘their own time’ after Trump-Starmer election row

Speaking at PMQs, Lib Dem deputy leader Daisy Cooper called for the government to set up a winter task force to prepare for an NHS winter crisis and ensure there are enough carers to allow hospital patients to be discharged.

Ms Cooper said: “Will the deputy prime minister consider the Liberal Democrats’ idea of an NHS winter task force to winter-proof our NHS, end this cycle of the winter crisis and put to an end the scandal of hospital patients paying the price of a social care crisis left by the Conservatives?”

Angela Rayner said: “I share with her desire to ensure that care workers are given the respect and the importance that they deserve.

“They are critical, in my opinion, to solving the problems within our National Health Service, and it’s the Labour Party that will create a national care service, and we are launching our first-ever fair pay agreement for care professionals to boost recruitment and retention.

“We must get the NHS back on its feet after the disaster of the Conservatives, and the chancellor will have more to say in the Budget.”

Lib Dem deputy leader Daisy Cooper urged the government not to increase national insurance contributions for care firms ahead of the Budget next week, warning that doing so could affect up to 18,000 small care firms and make it harder for people to access care.

Angela Rayner replied: “Well again I won’t speculate on the Budget, not least with the chancellor sat at the side of me.

“But ... I will reiterate what the chancellor has said and what the prime minister has said, this will be a budget that recognises working people of this country and the enterprise in this country has been hard hit by the 14 years of the Conservatives.

“We will rebuild Britain and we will grow our economy to pay for our public services.”

Asked by the SNP’s Stephen Flynn about the Trump campaign’s complaint against Labour, Angela Rayner told PMQs: “People in their own time often go and campaign. And that is what we have seen. It happens in all political parties.”

She added: “People go and campaign, and do what they want to do in their own time with their own money.”

Noting that it will be their final PMQs exchange, Oliver Dowden has asked Angela Rayner to join him in sending the King their best wishes in his visit to Samoa, as he pressed her to confirm that Labour recognises the Commonwealth’s “unique role” and will commit to deepening these ties.

Drawing laughs as she replied: “I will miss our exchanges”, Ms Rayner added: “The battle of the gingers, the late nights voting. And in that spirit, I will agree ... the King does a tremendous job and so did the late Queen.

“The Commonwealth is very important and that’s why the King and the prime minister at the moment are working together.”

Mr Dowden replied that “our Commonwealth family is brought together by historical and cultural ties”, joking: “Indeed, much like the pair of us.”

Citing Angela Rayner’s past remarks that “working people will pay when employers pass on the hike in national insurance”, Oliver Dowden pressed her to answer whether “she will at least agree with herself”.

Ms Rayner replied that she is incredibly proud of the Labour government’s new employment bill, and asked whether Mr Dowden would “like to apologise for the 70-year hike in taxes that he put on working people” and “the crashing of the economy”.

Oliver Dowden put to Angela Rayner that the IFS and Rachel Reeves have both said that raising employer national insurance would be a tax on working people.

The deputy PM replied: “I remember the party opposite and what they said to business – what was it? F to business? Whereas this party held an investment international investment summit last week which brought [£63bn] into our economy.

“We’re pro-business, pro-worker and getting on with fixing the mess that they left behind.”

Oliver Dowden challenged Angela Rayner that she cannot define “working people” and asked whether the 5 million small business owners in the UK fit that definition.

The deputy PM replied: “I don’t know how the shadow deputy prime minister can stand there with a straight face when it was the small businesses – working people of this country – that paid the price of them crashing the economy, sending interest rates soaring.”

Mr Dowden claimed that “the whole House will have heard the deputy prime minister disregard five million hardworking small business owners.”

Asked what her definition of “working people” is by Oliver Dowden, Angela Rayner first began with a jibe at her Tory predecessor, telling PMQs: “Today’s our first exchange since he pushed for a July general election.

“If his own side hasn’t offered him a peerage, I certainly would have.”

And she retorts: “The definition of working people are the people that the Tory party have failed for the last 14 years.”

Oliver Dowden has opened PMQs by joining Angela Rayner in paying tribute to Sir Chris Hoy following the Olympian’s cancer diagnosis, saying “he truly is an inspiration to us all”.

A Labour Party spokesperson has said it is “common practice” for campaigners “from around the world” to volunteer during US elections and Labour activists “do so at their own expense”.

The spokesperson said: “It is common practice for campaigners of all political persuasions from around the world to volunteer in US elections.

“Where Labour activists take part, they do so at their own expense, in accordance with the laws and rules.”