Ministers defend Rayner in tax row as fresh property purchase details emerge
Cabinet ministers have lined up to defend Angela Rayner as it emerged the Deputy Prime Minister consulted three people before purchasing a flat on which she underpaid stamp duty.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves gave Ms Rayner her “full confidence” to remain in post while Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said she had “sought to be transparent” in the scandal over her tax affairs.
It comes as sources close to the Deputy Prime Minister said she was given three separate pieces of legal advice before buying an £800,000 property in Hove.
They suggested a conveyancer and two experts in trust law had all suggested that the amount of stamp duty she paid on the property was correct and she acted on the advice she was given at the time.
Pressure
Ms Rayner has been under mounting pressure in recent weeks after reports emerged she had saved £40,000 in stamp duty on her East Sussex flat by not paying the higher rate reserved for additional home purchases.
On Wednesday she admitted she had made a “mistake” and referred herself to standards adviser Sir Laurie Magnus after receiving fresh legal advice that she was liable for the extra duty following headlines about the purchase.
Speaking to broadcasters on Thursday, Ms Reeves said: “I have full confidence in Angela Rayner. She’s a good friend and a colleague she has accepted the right stamp duty wasn’t paid.
“That was an error, that was a mistake. She is working hard now to rectify that, in contact with HMRC to make sure that the correct tax is paid.”
She said the “definitive advice” on the Deputy Prime Minister’s stamp duty arrangements came in on Wednesday morning.
Ms Phillipson said initial follow-up advice “came back on Monday” and that Ms Rayner then applied to have a court order lifted which prevented her speaking about the arrangements.
“She has acted in good faith, sought to act appropriately with the information available to her,” she told Times Radio.
Ms Phillipson said the case was different from sleaze rows under the previous Tory government, of which Ms Rayner was a outspoken critic, adding: “What we saw in some of those cases in the past was a lack of scrutiny and a lack of transparency.
“The Deputy Prime Minister has sought to be transparent, has set out in some detail, which has been difficult given that it relates to her family, extensive information.”
But she declined to guarantee Ms Rayner’s political future, insisting the investigation should “run its course.”
Asked if her colleague would still be Deputy Prime Minister by Christmas, she told LBC: “I’m not going to get into hypotheticals or speculate. I’m sorry to disappoint you. I’m just not going to do it. That process will run its course.”
“Deeply personal and distressing incident”
Details about the complex property arrangements have continued to emerge since Ms Rayner’s statement on Wednesday, when she had said that a court-instructed trust was established in 2020 following a “deeply personal and distressing incident” involving her son as a premature baby.
He was left with life-long disabilities and to ensure he continued to have stability in the family home in Greater Manchester, she said her family had agreed that its interest in that property would be transferred to the trust.
She said she had put her stake in the constituency home in Ashton-under-Lyne into this trust, which a “leading tax counsel” had later told her made her liable to pay the additional stamp duty on her new Hove flat.
On Thursday, the Daily Telegraph newspaper reported that she sold her remaining stake to the trust for £160,000.
Tax experts said the new property could not be treated as her only residence because of the nature of the trust.
The Conservatives have written to HMRC calling for it to launch its own investigation on whether she tried to evade tax, with party chairman Kevin Hollinrake saying her explanation “cannot withstand scrutiny”.
Sir Keir Starmer stood by his deputy at Prime Minister’s Questions, saying he was “very proud to sit alongside her” amid calls from Opposition critics for her to resign over the row.
Ms Rayner has said she is “working with expert lawyers and with HMRC to resolve the matter and pay what is due”.
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Rayner – a very vocal critic of any rival involved in financial malfeasance – is rather fond of tax avoidance, and now evasion. The woman is an absolute hypocrite, the orchestrator of her own undoing and should have resigned by now. The fact she thought she’d get away with it demonstrates staggering stupidity and arrogance.
So she took advice which suited her greed motive then found that it didn’t stack up when reviewed by a proper expert. Joe Public or his missus might be forgiven for such a faux pas but a government minister with a housing brief, part of a cabinet likely to jack up or introduce further property taxes within months. ought to have been a lot more alert to the issues that could arise. Then of course she was a major cheer leader in the condemnation of that Zadawi bloke who filched a lot more before he got nailed by HMRC. One… Read more »
She will need to produce evidence of that advice to the standards committee.
If the evidence is forthcoming will you issue a front page apology?
Some politicians / individuals / organisations get into issues with purchasing and others profit from poor planning. Blair was also criticised for property purchases and i won’t mention Trump. In 2011 it was noted that London based Department for Transport consistently ignored every piece of economic advise – specifically the EU advice on how to grow a transport network: trucks to trains / bus networks linked to train stations / economic development at Integrated Transport hubs. 2023 Network Rail went to purchase land near Crewe Station (should have been bought 10 years before) and found all the land was owned… Read more »
There’s a simple solution. How about every frontbencher, shadow frontbencher and party leader submits every property transaction from the last 10 years for an independent tax audit.
She did wrong. Simple as that. She needs to quit. No other option.
Does it bother you if people can’t rely on professional advice?
Now being reported 3 persons professional advice given.
Any tax law experts here care to explain nesting?
Though I fear she is untenable.
Funny that the press does this in the UK but ignore a bloke lying to the US law makers and gave Johnson a free pass and ALL the tory politicians looked the other way as he wrecked the UK. Kemi still sticking to her university story?
Rayner has made a career out of bleating on about those with the broadest shoulders paying more tax, while deliberately structuring her affairs to reduce the tax she pays. Even if the review concludes she hasn’t broken the letter of the law, she is certainly not within the spirit of the law (claiming one home as her primary residence for one purpose and another as her primary residence for another purpose), and her approach to her private finances is at odds with her public messaging about other people’s finances. Meanwhile, she has effectively cashed in £160,000 from her son’s trust… Read more »
Full marks for the tortuous effort but circumstances change and since second homes in Hove are subject to a second home ctax surcharge (as England again copies Wales) this will presumably be her primary residence in every sense.
Her constituency and her children are in Greater Manchester, and her government role is in London. How do you conclude that her primary residence is in Brighton? Maybe it will be in 2029 if she flees to a safe seat as some are suggesting, but not now.
Is there a rule that says an MP must live in their constituency? Everything can be done by Zoom these days.
I have no idea if there is a rule, but common sense suggests that the whole point of constituency MPs is that they represent their constituency, are connected to what goes on in their constituency and are available to their constituents to discuss local matters. If you honestly believe all of that can be done without being physically present, then lets abolish the whole system of the taxpayer funding two homes for MPs and force them all to move to London. Or maybe you think parliament can be replaced by a zoom call too, in which case they can all… Read more »
If there’s no rule then it’s up to her constituents to judge and no-one else.
But on their London second homes I agree. Replace them with purpose built serviced apartment blocks that the public can book during summer recess.
She was only transparent when she was caught out, bang to rights.