Angela Rayner’s Christmas message: “Thank you to all of our key workers”

Labour party chair and deputy leader Angela Rayner has used her Christmas message released today to thank “all of our key workers who have kept us safe and kept our country going” during the coronavirus pandemic.

Reflecting on the difficulties seen over the course of 2020, Rayner has told the public that her “heart goes out to everyone who is struggling, missing a loved one or isolated from their family” over the festive period.

After paying tribute to “the sacrifice of our key workers” and “the spirit of the British people”, her message concludes: “I hope that, even in the most difficult of circumstances, everyone is able to have a Merry Christmas.”

Below is the full text of Angela Rayner’s Christmas message.

I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas. This year the coronavirus pandemic has affected all of us. Many of us have lost loved ones.

And this Christmas, my heart goes out to everyone who is struggling, missing a loved one or isolated from their family. Christmas is a time when we all reflect on the year that has just gone.

And I want to say a massive thank you. Thank you to the care workers and NHS staff who have risked their lives to save others.

Thank you to the supermarket staff and delivery drivers who have kept us all fed and connected. Thank you to all of our key workers who have kept us safe and kept our country going.

There is nothing that I can say that will even come close to doing you justice. We all owe you a debt which can never be repaid.

And when I sit down for my Christmas dinner, I’ll be thinking of my old work mates from when I was a care worker in Stockport.

Because for our care workers and so many other key workers, their work doesn’t stop on Christmas Day.

I hope that at some point this Christmas you get a well-earned break. And next year, we will fight to make sure that you get the pay rise and the respect that you deserve.

This year has been a tough year for all of us. Our country has suffered more than almost any other.

But thanks to the sacrifice of our key workers on the frontline, and the spirit of the British people in keeping each other safe, there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

And I hope that, even in the most difficult of circumstances, everyone is able to have a Merry Christmas.