Keir Starmer stood by Deputy PM Angela Rayner in Prime Minister’s Questions following the stamp duty row over the purchase of her second home – and we’ve asked Mirror readers to share their thoughts
Keir Starmer has stood by his deputy Angela Rayner after she admitted that she did not pay the right amount of tax on the purchase of her second home – and we want to hear YOUR thoughts.
It comes after the Deputy PM avoided forking out £40,000 in stamp duty on a £800,000 seaside flat in Hove after she removed her name from the deeds of a family property in her Ashton-under-Lyne constituency. Therefore, she did not have to pay a higher rate of tax for second homes on the Hove flat.
In an interview yesterday, the housing secretary said she referred herself to the independent adviser on ministerial standards, and confessed that she spoke to her family about stepping down from her role. Ms Rayner added that the legal advice she had relied on turned out to be wrong, and confirmed she will pay any unpaid stamp duty requested by HMRC.
The MP for Ashton-under-Lyne told Sky News that she “alerted and referred” herself to the ethics adviser “as soon as” she learned she had been liable to pay additional stamp duty. She said: “I think the accusations were that I set up a trust and I flipped it to try and avoid paying it. But actually the complex area of the trust which the advice that I relied upon didn’t pick that up.
“The leading tax counsel who has subsequently looked at it has gone into that and said that actually, because of that, it did remain my sole property and the trust wasn’t set up as accusations have been made for me to try and flip… dodge tax.” Have your say on in our poll below and if you can’t see it, click HERE:
In Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday, Starmer defended his deputy, hailing that she did the “right” thing by referring herself to an ethics probe. He continued: “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.”
While on Monday, he said: “Angela came from a very humble background, battled all sorts of challenges along the way, and there she is proudly – and I’m proud of her – as our Deputy Prime Minister. Angela has had people briefing against her and talking her down over and over again. It’s a mistake.”
However, the Tories have called for Ms Rayner to face an ethics inquiry over her tax arrangements following the purchase of the flat. Speaking on Thursday’s Good Morning Britain, Conservative party chairman Kevin Hollinrake was branded a hypocrite for insisting Ms Rayner should resign immediately.
“I think she should resign, I don’t think her position is tenable,” Hollinrake said this morning. “The situation is she’s deputy prime minister, Housing Secretary and this is a matter that relates to housing. The information is readily available. If you look on the HMRC website it clearly sets out on the first page that trust count in terms of a primary home.”
When pressed on whether she could carry on in government, the Deputy PM replied: “Well, I made a mistake based upon the advice that I relied upon that I received at the time, and a leading expert has now said that advice was wrong. I think hopefully most people can see, if you take, if you rely on advice given to you by lawyers and you follow that process and then you find out that that process is wrong and that advice is wrong, I’m rectifying it at the earliest opportunity.”
No10 previously said a court order prevented Ms Rayner from revealing relevant information, which she was working to rectify. She told Sky News: “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.”
In a statement released yesterday, she discussed the “complex living arrangement” as her first home was sold to a trust after her divorce to provide stability for her disabled son, who is the sole beneficiary of the trust, writes Sky News. Following the bombshell interview yesterday, we want to know if you think the PM should stick by Ms Rayner. Vote in our poll HERE to have your say.
The Mirror will also be discussing the topic with you in the comments section below and you can join in! All you have to do is sign up, submit your comment, register your details and then you can take part.
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