Carry on vaping, Angela Rayner: voters might just like you for it | Zoe Williams

With her eye on No 10, the former deputy PM is apparently shedding bad habits. Angela Rayner, the former deputy prime minister, is the bookmakers’ favourite to be Keir Starmer’s successor. She is also someone who has recently given up vaping, according to the government minister Steve Reed, who had dinner with her at the weekend and told Sky News about it. These two facts about her – wanting to be PM and quitting vaping – are almost certainly connected. Plainly, giving up vaping is preparation for the highest office.

Rayner loves vaping: who can forget that fabulous photo of her, in the middle of the tax turmoil that led to her resignation last year, vaping in a dinghy off Brighton beach? You can get away with a huge amount of vaping as a middle-aged woman, owing to your fabled cloak of invisibility. I have vaped in the middle of an interview about whether or not vaping is bad for you. But I draw the line at vaping in the middle of the actual sea. A ngela Rayner, the former deputy prime minister, is the bookmakers’ favourite to be Keir Starmer’s successor.

These two facts about her – wanting to be PM and quitting vaping – are almost certainly connected. Plainly, giving up vaping is preparation for the highest office. Rayner loves vaping: who can forget that fabulous photo of her, in the middle of the tax turmoil that led to her resignation last year, vaping in a dinghy off Brighton beach ? You can get away with a huge amount of vaping as a middle-aged woman, owing to your fabled cloak of invisibility. I have vaped in the middle of an interview about whether or not vaping is bad for you.

But I draw the line at vaping in the middle of the actual sea. You can, of course, see why a prospective prime minister would think they need to quit vaping. Angela Rayner, the former deputy prime minister, is the bookmakers’ favourite to be Keir Starmer’s successor. These two facts about her – wanting to be PM and quitting vaping – are almost certainly connected. Plainly, giving up vaping is preparation for the highest office.

Rayner loves vaping: who can forget that fabulous photo of her, in the middle of the tax turmoil that led to her resignation last year, vaping in a dinghy off Brighton beach? You can get away with a huge amount of vaping as a middle-aged woman, owing to your fabled cloak of invisibility. I have vaped in the middle of an interview about whether or not vaping is bad for you. But I draw the line at vaping in the middle of the actual sea. Carry on vaping, Angela Rayner: voters might just like you for it | Zoe Williams