Angela Rayner has resigned. She should be Labour’s last ever deputy leader.

I am heartbroken for her. Angela’s life tells a bigger story about Britain. A childhood on a Stockport council estate, a mum at sixteen, night shifts in care, a union rep who learned how to organise and to speak for those who are not heard, an MP who fought her constituents’ corner, a minister who became Deputy Prime Minister. This is the long route to public service, earned the hard way, and it commands respect.

In government she brought a voice rooted in experience. She spoke as people speak. Long before office she said that ideology never put food on her table; it is the kind of sentence that cuts through because it comes from a life lived close to the edge. Many of her former colleagues are able administrators who keep the machine moving; Angela added something rarer, a felt understanding of the dignity of work and the worth of every person.

The events are painful and the weather is still rough. She has taken responsibility and stepped down. Politics moves at speed; the human rhythm is slower. The diary loses its weight, friends call, colleagues carry on, the work feels far away. I have known enough of public life to recognise that moment and I want her to know that reach does not vanish with office. It can be redirected and it can do good.

What comes next must be hers to decide, not mine to dictate. Yet if she chooses to put her energy where her life gives her authority, she can move the country: better pay and standards for paid carers, a serious advance for young carers who shoulder adult burdens too soon, adult literacy for families who were left behind, skills and second chances that open real paths and community power in places that feel forgotten. She belongs in front of a camera when it serves the cause. The public already trusts her to speak plainly and to listen well.

Now the institutional point. The role of deputy leader invites theatre without remit. It duplicates authority and muddies accountability. It tempts every faction to see a second power base where there should be clear lines of responsibility. At a time when the economy demands focus and steadiness, we should retire the title. Change our rules for who fronts the party when the leader is unavailable, empower a party chair with published objectives. Less parade, more purpose.

Those who remain in cabinet will go on with the hard graft of governing and many will do it well. None of that diminishes what set Angela apart: the ease with which she can walk into any room, listen hard and draw out the truth of people’s lives. That is a kind of leadership the country still needs.

I have a hunch the best is yet to come from Angie Rayner. And she is about to learn that you resign as a deputy leader but you can never resign as an ex-deputy leader.