Angela Rayner blasted for 'lecturing on value of taxpayer money' after buying AirPods on expenses

Rayner accused the Government of “spending hundreds of thousands of pounds” of taxpayers’ money on “loophole lawyers”.

But Dowden said he found it "extraordinary" that she should "lecture" the Conservative Party over "value for money" regarding expenditure for the Covid inquiry.

She said: “He pretends that it’s complicated but it’s simple. They set up the inquiry to get to the truth, then blocked that inquiry from getting the information that it asked for and now they’re taking it to court.

“I know he considers himself a man of the people, so using his vast knowledge of working class Britain, does he think working people will thank him for spending hundreds of thousands of pounds of their money on loophole lawyers, just so the Government can obstruct the Covid inquiry?”

Dowden replied: “We will provide the inquiry with each and every document related to Covid including all internal discussions in any form as requested.

"While crucially protecting what is wholly and unambiguously irrelevant because essential (she) is calling for years worth of documents and messages between named individuals to be in scope and that could cover anything from civil servants’ medical conditions to intimate details about their families.”

He added: “I find extraordinary that she should lecture us on value for money for the taxpayer when I understand she has now purchased two pairs of noise cancelling headphones on expenses.

"I will be fair to (her) if I had to attend shadow cabinet meetings, I think I’d want to tune them out too.”

Rayner expensed the £139 earphones but when confronted about the claim, Commons authorities confirmed that a repayment was made.

The Ashton-under-Lyne MP was accused of "hypocrisy" in 2021 after claiming £249 for personalised Airpods, on top of more than £2,000 for other Apple kit.

On December 12, 2022 she put in another expenses claim titled "earphone for office" for the exact same retail price of 2nd Generation Apple AirPods.

Defending the first purchase of earphones earlier this year, Rayner said: "All of my equipment has to sync with each other so that I can carry out my work and people will understand that.

"I wouldn't say that it's luxury to have computer equipment that is everyday expenditure for somebody that works with computers every day for their job."