Keir Starmer and several top ministers threw their weight behind Angela Rayner after she admitted to paying the wrong rate of stamp duty on the purchase of a flat in Hove
Keir Starmer has backed Angela Rayner as she faced questions over her future after admitting she failed to pay enough tax on an £800,000 seaside flat.
The Deputy Prime Minister said she received incorrect legal advice, which meant she saved an estimated £40,000 by paying a lower rate of stamp duty when she bought the property in Hove, East Sussex.
Ms Rayner, who is also the Housing Secretary, said she “deeply regrets” the error and appeared emotional in a TV interview where she said she had discussed resigning with her family. She also referred herself to the PM’s standards watchdog and vowed to repay any tax owed.
Ms Rayner was under intense pressure tonight amid fury over the revelations but allies defended her for making an “honest mistake” as she faced a battle for her political survival.
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The row centres on her purchase of a flat in Hove in May, where she paid the standard rate of stamp duty rather than the higher rate for second homes, which is around £40,000 more.
Ms Rayner said she received legal advice that she could designate the flat as her only property after she removed her name from the deeds of her constituency home in Ashton-under-Lyne in January, where her ex-husband and children still live.
Some of the interest in the family home had been put into a trust set up in 2020 to care for her disabled son. Ms Rayner sold her stake in the property, which she used to part-fund the purchase of the Hove flat.
After intense scrutiny in recent weeks, she took fresh legal advice which said she was liable to pay the additional stamp duty.
The Deputy PM spoke out after she applied to have a court order lifted that blocked her from disclosing her arrangements. A visibly emotional Ms Rayner told Sky News that complications regarding “complex living arrangements” were stoked by her divorce in 2023 and by the fact that her son has “life-long disabilities.”
“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 felt proud to do that,” she said.
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch said: “I remember when the Prime Minister said tax evasion is a criminal offence, and should be treated as all other fraud. If he had a backbone, he would sack her.”
Reform UK deputy leader Richard Tice said: “She was so vocal in attacking opposing politicians when she was in opposition that she can’t stand up and say ‘I’m the biggest hypocrite in the land’. “She has to offer her resignation to the Prime Minister.”
But Mr Starmer said he was “very proud to sit alongside” his deputy at PMQs, saying she had done the right thing to refer herself for a probe.
The PM, who gave her a reassuring pat on the shoulder in the Commons, said she did the “right” thing by referring herself to an ethics probe. He added: “But I can be clear, I’m very proud to sit alongside a Deputy Prime Minister who is building 1.5 million homes… who’s come from a working class background.”
Tax expert Dan Neidle said she should publish the advice she received. He said: “It’s pretty usual for people who don’t get proper advice to pay the wrong stamp duty, it’s pretty unusual for a tax advisor who specialises in this area to get it wrong.
“It begs the question of how did this happen? It’s kind of reasonable to say ‘if you got the wrong advice then publish that advice’. Redact confidential stuff, we don’t need to see the personal details, but let’s see what the advice actually said.”
Allies rowed in behind Ms Rayner as questions swirled over her future.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting told BBC 5 Live: “The Deputy PM has at every stage of this acted in good faith and I think acted honestly.” He added: “She’s now said she’s made an honest mistake, she’s referred herself to the independent adviser on ethics who works for the Prime Minister.
“I’ve known Angela a long time, I’ve known her for the last 10 years, she is a decent person, she is an honest woman and genuinely thinks she’s acted honestly at every step of the way. This is a mistake, but an honest mistake”.
Mr Streeting also said it would be “absolute travesty” if the Deputy PM resigned. He said: “I think back on the first year of this Labour government and I think about some of the things we’ve achieved that I’m most proud of and so many of them have Angela Rayner’s finger prints on it.”
Technology Secretary Peter Kyle said Ms Rayner was “being treated very differently” because she was from a working class background.
He added: “Just because it is Angela, with her accent and her background, people are treating her in a way they wouldn’t, that if a Tory MP who was born in wealth had a second home, which many of them do already.”
Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey said he believed she had been trying to act in her child’s best interests. He said: “I understand it is normally the role of opposition leaders to jump up and down and call for resignations – as we’ve seen plenty of from the Conservatives already.
“Obviously if the ethics adviser says Angela Rayner has broken the rules, her position may well become untenable. But as a parent of a disabled child, I know the thing my wife and I worry most about is our son’s care after we have gone, so I can completely understand and trust that the Deputy Prime Minister was thinking about the same thing here.”
A Labour MP told the Mirror : “She has absolutely done the right thing and no one should ever underestimate how loved Angela is in the PLP. It sounds to me like she did the right thing taking professional advice and wasn’t very well served.”
But another said: “I feel sorry in a way for her, as does the PLP. But the charge of tax dodging is a serious one. After all, the take home pay of many of my constituents means that many of them don’t earn £40k over two years.”
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