Angela Rayner has criticised Tory leadership contender Kemi Badenoch for rowing with actor David Tennant over transgender rights during the Labour Party Conference.
The deputy prime minister joked that Ms Badenoch was ‘doing a side deal with the Daleks’ after ‘launching her leadership campaign with an attack on Doctor Who’ during her opening speech in Liverpool.
Poking fun at the row, she told the crowd of people ‘Perhaps that’s why Kemi launched the leadership campaign with an attack on Doctor Who.
‘It was bad enough when they wanted to deal with Farage. Now she’s doing side deals with the Daleks,’ which led to ripples of laughter across the audience.
‘At least, after three months as shadow housing secretary, she’s finally expressed the concern about a tenant. It’s just a pity it’s David Tennant.’
Ms Rayner’s pun follows a row between the former Doctor Who actor, who played the titular character of The Doctor from 2005 to 2010, and Ms Badenoch earlier this year.
During his speech at the British LGBT Awards, Tennant told the Tory politician to ‘shut up’ in a passionate award speech over the rights of the transgender community.
Tennant and his wife, actress Georgia, regularly speak up and campaign for the rights of trans people, while Badenoch was previously criticised for leaked comments that she made about LGBT rights, which included her using an outdated and offensive term to describe trans people.
In response, Ms Badenoch accused the actor of being a “rich, lefty, white male celebrity so blinded by ideology” in a post to social media website X.
She also wrote: ‘I will not shut up. I will not be silenced by men who prioritise applause from Stonewall over the safety of women and girls.’
It came after Ms Rayner denied breaking rules over a holiday she took to New York with an MP friend – saying she was, if anything, ‘overly transparent’ about the trip.
Ms Rayner travelled to the US city for New Year with then-Ilford South MP Sam Tarry and stayed in accommodation provided by Lord Waheed Alli.
According to the Sunday Times, the apartment in Manhattan is worth $2.5 million (£1.9 million), and the estimated cost of staying there for five days – as listed in Rayner’s register of interests – was £1,250.
In an appearance on Laura Kuenssberg’s BBC show this morning, Rayner faced questions over whether she breached parliamentary rules by failing to declare that Tarry had joined her in the accommodation.
She told the presenter: ‘I paid for my holiday in New York, but as friends do, a friend allowed me to stay. I often allow people to stay at mine.’
The Ashton-under-Lyne MP said she went ‘beyond the rules’ and was ‘overly transparent’ by declaring the stay in her register of interests even though it was a private, personal holiday that did not involve parliamentary activity.
She said she felt it was important to officially register it as Lord Alli has given her political donations to her as deputy leader.
When pressed on whether she broke the rules by staying with Tarry, she said: ‘I don’t believe I broke any rules. I had the use of the apartment, and I disclosed that I had the use of the apartment.’
Rayner was previously in a relationship with Tarry, who was deselected as a candidate by his local Labour Party ahead of the 2024 election, but it was reported to have come to an end last year.
She said Tarry had not travelled with her to New York, but she had met him along with a larger group of friends upon arrival.
Lord Alli has recently been at the centre of controversy over gifts accepted by Labour’s top team, most prominently Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
While leader of the opposition, Starmer took gifts of suits and pairs of glasses worth thousands of pounds from the TV mogul peer.
On Friday, it was revealed that he, Rayner and Chancellor Rachel Reeves would no longer accept donations for clothing.
The constant stream of revelations over freebies accepted by members of the cabinet shows no sign of abating as Labour begins its four-day party conference in Liverpool.
It is the first time in 15 years that the party has held such a gathering while in power, but anger about the gifts and the government’s decision to cut the winter fuel payment for millions of UK pensioners threatens to overshadow the celebrations.
Rayner is due to address the conference later this morning, while Reeves and Starmer will make their own speeches on Monday and Tuesday respectively.
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