Rayner felt 'great concern' at threats, court told

Angela Rayner was left feeling "great concern" after being sent abusive voicemails that included threats to kill her and her son, a court heard.

They were made via her Ashton-under-Lyne constituency office on 5 September 2025 - the day she resigned as deputy prime minister and housing secretary.

The voicemails caused her family and staff "great stress and anxiety", Westminster Magistrates' Court was told earlier.

Elizabeth Harker, 63, from Luton, has admitted sending the four voicemails targeting Rayner and will be sentenced on 24 March.

She pleaded guilty to sendinga communication that was "grossly offensive or of an indecent, obscene or menacing character".

In a victim impact statement read to the court, Rayner said: "I have not listened to the recording, however I have been advised by my office manager that the threats were made with malice."

She said she found this behaviour "unacceptable" and felt "distressed and alarmed".

In one, Harker told Rayner: "You don't know what is coming to you."

Detectives later traced the calls to Harker, who made them using a mobile phone registered to her home address.

Rayner resigned from the cabinet after it emerged she did not pay enough stamp duty on an £800,000 flat in Hove.

She did not attend Monday's court hearing.

Details of another unrelated incident, where Harker sent an abusive message to a woman in Luton, were also read to the court.

It was said she posted a handwritten note - which included slurs and comments such as "paedo" and "drop dead scrounge" - to the woman's house.

Harker went on to admit sending a communication with an indecent or offensive message.

Lewis Green, mitigating, said of Harker: "She has a long-established and entrenched history of alcohol misuse of the last 30 years.

"She tells me she is still drinking, though not to the extent previously."

Harker was released on conditional bail and ordered to undergo an alcohol treatment assessment ahead of being sentenced.

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