Angela Rayner last night came under fire for not directly referring to Jewish people in a social media post to mark Holocaust Memorial Day. 

The Deputy Prime Minister posted a picture on X of herself looking sombre as she lit a Holocaust Memorial Day branded candle.

Alongside the poignant image the Labour MP wrote: 'Tonight, I'm lighting a candle to remember all those who were murdered just for being who they were, and to stand against prejudice and hatred today. Never again. #LightThe Darkness #HMD2025.' 

But there has been a venomnous backlash on the social media platform for her post not directly referring to Jewish people.

She was accused of not being able to 'bring yourself to say Jews' while another made unfounded claims that it was 'carefully worded' so 'as to not alienate the Muslim vote'. 

MailOnline has contacted the Labour Party and Mrs Rayner's office for comment.  

Mrs Rayner had previously shared messages on her X page throughout the day, including from the premier Sir Keir Starmer, that did directly reference the six million Jews who were murdered during the Holocaust. 

She earlier signed the Holocaust Education Trust's Book of Commitment in Parliament which honours those who were killed during the genocide.

Mrs Rayner also met survivor Eve Kugler BEM, which she described as being 'truly an honour... to hear her extraoridnary story'. 

'Her words were powerful and a reminder that it's not enough to just remember — we also need the courage to stand up against racism and hatred in all its forms. #HMD2025,' Mrs Rayner wrote on X. 

Mrs Kugler was aged seven in 1938 when she lived through the 'nightmare' of the Kristallnacht when her parents were snatched by the Nazis. 

She was sent to America with her sister and lived in foster care where they were reunited with their mother and father in 1946, who had miraculously survived concentration camps. 

Mrs Rayner yesterday stood alongside Prince William and the Princess of Wales for a group photo with around 50 Holocaust survivors at Holocaust Memorial Service in London. 

The roughly 50 Holocaust survivors in attendance gathered for a group photo with the royal couple, deputy PM, and Sir Keir.

PM Sir Keir told yesterday in a speech at the ceremony at the Guildhall how he and his wife Victoria had found a visit to Auschwitz last month 'harrowing' as they searched for members of her family in the Book of Names. 

'We turned page after page after page just to find the first letter of a name. It gave me an overwhelming sense of the sheer scale of this industrialised murder,' he said.

'And every one of those names, like the names we were looking for – was an individual person. Someone's mother, father, brother, sister brutally murdered, simply because they were Jewish.'

Holocaust survivors, their families and world leaders gathered at Auschwitz yesterday to mark the 80th anniversary of the Nazi death camp's liberation.

The ceremony, which was attended by some 50 survivors, is expected to have been the last major observance that any notable number of survivors will be able to attend.

The Nazis murdered some 1.1 million people at the notorious site in southern Poland, which was under German occupation during World War II before being liberated by Soviet troops.

Most of the victims were Jews killed on an industrial scale in gas chambers, but also Poles, Roma, Soviet prisoners of war, gay people and others who were targeted for elimination due to the Nazi's depraved racial and social ideology.

Elderly camp survivors, some wearing blue-and-white striped scarves and hats that recall their prison uniforms, walked together to the Death Wall, where prisoners were executed.