Rayner Funnelled Taxpayer Cash into Anti-Right-Wing Propaganda

Angela Rayner’s department funnelled taxpayers’ cash into Left-wing propaganda seeking to prevent a Reform or Tory government in the wake of the Southport murders. The Telegraph has the story.

As deputy prime minister, Rayner announced a £15 million “community cohesion” fund to bring people together and prevent further unrest after the Southport riots.

Money from the taxpayer fund was distributed to Left-wing activists for training sessions on preventing the “disaster” of a Reform government and stifling criticism of migration.

Publicly funded material seen by the Telegraph was handed to council staff, offering instructions for steering local voters away from Nigel Farage as well as the “Tory-Right”.

Documents seen by the Telegraph single out politicians on the Right, including Suella Braverman, Jacob Rees-Mogg and Boris Johnson.

Even Sir Keir Starmer is criticised for a “shameful” speech in which he raised concerns that Britain could become an “island of strangers” as a result of immigration.

The training was funded at a time of increasing concerns about migration, which reached record net levels of almost one million in 2022, while more than 200,000 illegal migrants have arrived by small boat since 2018.

Training delivered in targeted areas across England offered guidance on preventing “working class communities” from leaning to the Right, specifically by countering “racist narratives” about immigration.

Lectures offered tips on distracting the public from immigration concerns, including fears about small-boat arrivals, and training included role-playing exercises on quelling discontent in “small seaside towns”.

This training was devised and delivered by the Ella Baker School of Organising, a network founded by former members of the Left-wing group Hope Not Hate, which was reported to the Electoral Commission in June over alleged campaigning for Labour in the Makerfield by-election.

Funding received by the School of Organising came from the Community Recovery Fund announced in 2024 by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG), when Rayner led the department before her resignation over an unpaid tax bill.

This £15 million fund was intended to help areas affected by rioting following the Southport killings. Cash was distributed to chosen local authorities, including Birmingham City Council, which was Labour-led at the time.

Announcing the fund at the time, Rayner said: “In the immediate aftermath of the unrest, I was heartened to see the extent to which communities so quickly came together to support one another and their local areas.

“This new Community Recovery Fund will support the work that is already under way and ensure that communities have the resources they need to rebuild.”

The council handed over an initial £13,450 of taxpayers’ money to the School of Organising, which was used to create a pilot training programme titled “Defeating narratives of division”, an 11-part lecture series with an accompanying manifesto.

This pilot was expanded, and Blackpool’s Labour-led council gave £9,000 to pay for a local version of this Left-wing training, made with an arts group called Aunty Social.

It was also delivered to staff working for Sheffield City Council, led by Labour and the Green Party, in particular those handling asylum and immigration issues.

Sessions were held in Walsall, Solihull, and council areas within the Liverpool City Region, including Sefton, which covers Southport.

Future sessions are planned, including some in partnership with the Youth Work Training Academy for Wales, a pilot scheme of the government-funded Education and Training Standards Cymru.

An online booking form for training in Glasgow states: “Despite the abject failure of the mainstream democratic parties, there is still time to avert the impending disaster of a Reform UK government.”

The manifesto for this training warns that Reform UK won four million votes at the last election, and states that “Farage is a classic authoritarian populist” who is among political figures “undermining democracy”.

Publicly funded lecture material says: “This is a party that is hostile to multiculturalism, hostile to LGBTQ+ rights, opposes ‘woke’ in the classroom, wants out of the European Convention of Human Rights, and will rip up our already limited climate change commitments.”

One lecture in the training material warns that “our people (the working classes) are voting Reform UK in the belief that migrants are the problem”, and adds: “Toxic forces are asserting a narrative that prioritises the interests of straight, white, men.”

Training material seen by the Telegraph highlights the “vulnerability of working class communities to far-Right, alt-Right and Tory-Right narratives of division and blame”.

To prevent immigration issues delivering electoral success for the “far-Right”, which is said to comprise elements of the “Conservative Party and beyond”, the training sets out to counter “racist narratives”, such as the claim that “migrants put strain on underfunded services and are willing to work for lower pay”.

In fact, a study based on HMRC data suggested earlier this month that a surge in low-paid migrants had lowered salaries for workers outside London by more than £1,000 a year.

The study, by Cambridge Circus Research, a new London-based think tank with undisclosed funding, recommended the Government cut all visas for low-wage work.

Households with at least one foreign national were found by another recent study, by the Centre for Migration Control, to have claimed £11.9 billion in universal credit in 2025.

The cost of asylum accommodation is £4 billion each year, more than the Britain’s Trident nuclear deterrent.

Worth reading in full.