Angela Rayner is fighting for her political future as Kemi Badenoch demands Keir Starmer sack her after she referred herself to the ethics adviser following an admission that she did not pay enough tax on her second home. The Telegraph has more.
The Deputy Prime Minister said she had considered resigning after the Telegraph revealed she had dodged a £40,000 tax bill on her new home on the south coast.
She spoke out hours after a court order was overturned that had blocked her from telling the full details about her financial arrangements. Ms Rayner’s admission will increase pressure on her to consider her position in Government.
At Prime Minister’s Questions, Mrs Badenoch said: “I welcome the fact that the Deputy Prime Minister has referred herself to the ethics adviser. She has admitted she underpaid tax. So why is she still in office?”
Sir Keir insisted that Ms Rayner had gone “over and above” by asking for a court ruling to be lifted, saying: “I know from speaking at length to the Deputy Prime Minister just how difficult that decision was for her and her family.
“But she did it to ensure that all information is in the public domain, she has now referred herself to the independent adviser, that is the right thing to do.”
The Prime Minister went on to say he was “very proud” to sit alongside Ms Rayner and have her as his deputy.
But Ms Badenoch replied: “I’m not sure we would have heard all that sympathy [for Ms Rayner] if it was a Conservative Deputy Prime Minister who was being attacked.
“I remember when the Prime Minister said that tax evasion is a criminal offence and should be treated as all other fraud. If he had a backbone, he would sack her.”
James Cleverly, the Shadow Housing Secretary, told the Telegraph: “Her credibility is in tatters, she’s dodged questions all summer, her actions reek of hypocrisy. Starmer is too weak to kick her out.”
Speaking to Sky News, Ms Rayner said that reports she had not paid enough tax on her second home in Hove were “accurate”.
Asked whether she had considered resigning, she said: “I’ve been in shock, really, because I thought I’d done everything properly, and I relied on the advice that I received and I’m devastated because I’ve always upheld the rules and always have done.
“And always felt proud to do that. I feel, you know, that it is devastating for me and the fact that the reason why those confidential clauses were in place was to protect my son, who, through no fault of his own, he’s vulnerable, he’s got this life changing, lifelong conditions and I don’t want him or anything to do with his day to day life, to be subjected to that level of scrutiny because it’s his and my ex-husband that is…
“It’s not fair on them. Often my family dragged in because of what my role is and what I do. But I try to uphold the high standards, and that’s why I’ve referred myself so that the independent advice can look at everything.”
Ms Rayner added: “It’s been quite a distressing time for my family. I have a court order that was in place around confidentiality regarding my son, my family and my divorce proceedings that happened in 2023.
“And therefore, I wasn’t able to give a full account of the circumstances of our complex living arrangements. That order was lifted last night. I applied to have the order lifted so that I could give people the information.”
Follow the Telegraph‘s live coverage here.
Rayner is being accused of hypocrisy after demanding Nadhim Zahawi be sacked by Rishi Sunak back in 2023 over a tax issue.
Nadhim Zahawi’s story about his tax affairs doesn’t add up. After months of denials, the truth emerges.
His position is untenable. Rishi Sunak must dismiss him from his Cabinet.👇🏻 pic.twitter.com/ZD8ZzLgHHg
— Angela Rayner (@AngelaRayner) January 21, 2023
See Related Article Below
Rayner has just torpedoed Reeves’s Budget plans
Deputy PM’s stamp-duty admission will lead to serious problems for both Starmer and his Chancellor
A fortnight ago, pictures of a laid-back Angela Rayner puffing on a vape on Hove beach were splashed across the front of newspapers.
Two weeks later, amid a growing furore over her housing arrangements, her credibility has been shot to pieces – and she may have just done the same thing to Rachel Reeves’s Budget plans.
The Deputy Prime Minister stands accused of rank hypocrisy after finally admitting that she underpaid the stamp duty on her new £800,000 flat.
In time-honoured fashion she has referred herself to Sir Laurie Magnus, No 10’s ethics adviser, possibly in the hope that an investigation would kick the controversy into the long grass.
But her admission will create an increasingly painful series of headaches for both Sir Keir Starmer and his Chancellor, whose Budget plans Ms Rayner has just torpedoed.
Arguably the person worst affected by the whole affair is Ms Reeves, who is grappling with a black hole in the public finances of up to £50bn, caused by sluggish growth and surging borrowing costs.
It is no secret in Westminster circles that she has been scoping out ways to fill a fair portion of the cavernous void in the Treasury’s balance sheet by increasing taxes on property and wealth.
There have been reports saying that Ms Reeves is planning to hit the owners of more expensive homes with capital gains tax when they sell.
The Chancellor is also said to be considering other property levies, such as creating new council tax bands for the most valuable dwellings.
The measures could form part of a wider raid on wealth, which may also include a crackdown on inheritance tax reliefs and gifting rules.
Ms Rayner’s admission now makes that path, already fraught with political danger over warnings of an exodus of wealth creators, even more difficult to navigate.
As the Tories found out in brutal fashion last summer, there is little more damaging than the perception that there is one rule for the elite and another for everyone else.
Few will know that better than Sir Mel Stride, one of the survivors of the Conservatives’ ballot box battering, who was quick to go on the attack on precisely that point.
“It’s utterly extraordinary that while working families and businesses are being hammered by Labour’s tax hikes, Angela Rayner has failed to pay the right amount of stamp duty,” he said.
“The Deputy Prime Minister should not be setting the rules when she fails to keep them herself.”
Sacking would anger the Left
Tory and Reform strategists will already be sharpening their attack lines in the event that Ms Reeves forges ahead with steep rises in property taxes regardless.
But if the Chancellor faces an immediate headache, with her Budget looming at the end of November, then Sir Keir faces a far more long-term and persistent migraine.
The hope that Sir Laurie’s investigation can stall a decision on his deputy’s future is likely to prove forlorn, meaning Sir Keir faces will have to decide whether to wield the axe.
Sitting at his desk in No 10, he will be acutely aware that either course of action – give her the chop or spare her – comes with significant downsides.
If he sacks her, then he can only do so from her role as Housing Secretary, meaning he could end up still lumbered with her as his deputy leader.
The Telegraph; continue reading
Featured image: The Telegraph
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