Angela Rayner today met Pope Francis in the Vatican as she hailed the Holy See for ‘building bridges of dialogue among faiths’.
The Deputy Prime Minister attended a general audience at St Peter’s Square after travelling to Rome for an annual UK-Italy conference.
Shortly after their meeting, the Labour politician posted a photo on social media of herself shaking hands with the Pope.
‘I was honoured to be able to greet His Holiness Pope Francis at the Vatican this morning,’ she wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.
‘Pope Francis has shown great leadership on addressing the global issues of our time and building bridges of dialogue among faiths.’
Ms Rayner is away from Westminster to attend the Pontignano Conference in the Italian capital, which aims to strengthen UK-Italian ties in response to shared challenges.
In her absence from the House of Commons, the Deputy PM missed Tory leader Kemi Badenoch taking a swipe at her controversial workers’ rights reforms.
Speaking at Prime Minister’s Questions this afternoon, Mrs Badenoch claimed Ms Rayner’s employment rights legislation will ‘stop businesses hiring’.
The Tory leader also appeared to use the concerns of a biscuit company to aim a jibe at the Deputy PM.
She said: ‘Following his Budget, the head of McVitie’s has said that it has been harder to understand what the case for investment in the UK is.
‘So while the Prime Minister has been hobnobbing in Brazil, businesses have been struggling to digest his Budget.
‘Isn’t it the case that the Employment Rights Bill shows that it is not only the ginger nut that is causing him problems?’
In reply, PM Sir Keir Starmer defended his attendance at the recent G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro.
He also accused Mrs Badenoch of ‘carping from the sidelines’, telling MPs: ‘She’s racked up £6.7billion of unfunded commitments in just three weeks as Leader of the Opposition.’
