Angela Rayner says Boris Johnson and Keir Starmer represent a choice between the 'naughty boyfriend' or 'the stable one'

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Boris Johnson is like an “edgy, naughty boyfriend”, Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner has declared in an interview in which she admits Sir Keir Starmer is not as “racy” as the PM.

She says Mr Johnson is like a “puppy” when he flirts and flatters her as she faces him at Prime Minister’s Questions. And she admits he is authentic, even though he is “just an authentic liar”.

The Labour leader, on the other hand, is “stable” and “a grown up”, but he “over-prepares” for Prime Minister’s Questions, his deputy claims in a lengthy profile in the New Statesman magazine.

Ms Rayner’s verdict on the character and personality of two main party leaders comes as she speaks of her ambitions to become a Cabinet minister and praises the governments of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.

Asked how long Mr Johnson has left in Downing Street, she says: “We’ve got to the point where it’s a question of, do you want the edgy, naughty boyfriend, but, actually, in the long run he’s toxic?

“Or do you want the stable one who says ‘I’m not going to be as racy as that, but I will provide you with a family and nurture you’.

“As a nation, we have to decide. Do we want a grown-up, or someone who’s going to throw you in a racing car and thrill you to near-exhaustion and death?”

Comparing herself with the PM, she says: “One of the things the Conservatives fear about me is that I say it how I see it, and that’s why the public believed in Johnson.

“You might not agree with what I say, but you know whatever I say is authentic, and people are looking for authenticity. That’s what they felt they were getting from Johnson.

“What they’re realising now is, he is authentic – he’s just an authentic liar.”