Thanks to Labour’s incredible Black Friday deal, breaking manifesto policies is buy-one-get-one-free. As part of its all-promises-must-go drive, it’s ditching its flagship policy giving the right to claim unfair dismissal from day one of employment. Employers will now have up to six months to summarily sack workers who don’t pan out – unless they’re the government, in which case people have to wait till 2029.

The employment rights bill was drawn up and championed by Angela Rayner, who resigned in September following a series of discoveries about her tax affairs. Weird to think that Rayner could easily have been in the I’m a Celebrity camp right now. The former deputy PM reportedly got pretty far along in her discussions with ITV in terms of booking a spot on the current series of the fauna-testicle-based format, and could at this very moment have been giving us her Queen Over the Water/Queen in the Jungle Shower for 80 minutes of primetime a night. But in the end, Rayner seems to have concluded – or had it concluded for her – that there wouldn’t be a way back to frontline politics if she took that particular leave of absence.

Such are the sliding-doors moments in our very serious politics. Who’s to say for sure, but maybe Rayner will now be thinking that declining the ostrich anus was the right call as she does the House of Commons tearoom trial over the coming days. According to briefings, she’ll be........

© The Guardian