Labour’s shadow minister Angela Rayner last night revealed s he has become a grandmother at just 37 years-old.
The shadow education secretary tweeted her delight at the latest addition to her family and dubbed herself a ‘grangela’.
Ms Rayner was just 16 when she had her first child and has told how becoming pregnant so young ‘saved’ her.
Announcing the news on twitter last night, she said: ‘At just before 6am today after an eventful evening, I became a grandma.
‘Thank you to all the wonderful staff at NHS Tameside’, with the hashtag ‘grangela’.
Her tweet was liked more than 2,500 times and MPs from across the political divide congratulated her on the baby news on Twitter
Angela Rayner, pictured in the House of Commons, became a mother for the first time at 16, has now become a grandmother at just 37 years-old
Angela Rayner revealed her delight at the latest addition to her family – dubbing herself a grangela
Andrew Gwynne, shadow communities secretary, wrote: ‘Congratulations Angela and family. (Loving the hashtag by the way) x
Tory MP Tom Tugendhat said the announcement is ‘wonderful news’ while Labour MPs Jonathan Ashworth and Jonathan Reynolds also tweeted their congratulations.
Ms Rayner, a mother-of-three and MP for Ashton-under-Lyne, left school at 16 pregnant and with no qualifications.
She has told how becoming a mother so young was tough but motivated her to make something of her life.
Speaking at a Labour Party fringe event in September, she told how pregnancy ‘saved’ her.
Labours shadow communities secretary was among the first to tweet his congratulations to Angela Rayner
Tory MP Tom Tugendhat also joined in the congratulations saying it is wonderful news. Ms Rayner’s tweet announcing the news was liked over 2,500 times
Labour MP Jonathan Reynolds also congratulated Ms Rayner on becoming a grandmother. She is believed to be the youngest grandmother in the House of Commons
She said: ‘Because I had a little person that I had to look after and I wanted to prove to everybody I wasn’t the scumbag they thought I was going to be, and I could be a good mum, and that somebody was finally going to love me as much as I deserved to be loved.
‘And that’s what pregnancy was for me, it saved me.’
Her children are ‘in a much better position than I ever had, and my mum could only have dreamed of having a daughter that got to where I am today’, she said.
And she added: ‘That’s social mobility.’