Angela Rayner’s future in doubt as she admits she should have paid more tax: Live updates

Shadow chancellor Sir Mel Stride said Angela Rayner spent the summer celebrating her growing ‘property empire’ as he opened the Conservatives’ Opposition Day debate in Parliament

I’m absolutely certain that the Deputy Prime Minister had a good recess. We saw many photographs of her down at the seaside, just off the coast in a rubber dinghy, rather like many of the other photographs over the summer given the reckless policies this Government has towards illegal migration.

She was probably celebrating the acquisition of another property for her property empire, but perhaps also slightly tinged with that nagging doubt as to whether she had indeed paid enough stamp duty. Well, we will get to the bottom of that in due course.

Tax expert Dan Neidle has offered his thoughts on the case of Angela Rayner.

In a post on his X account, Mr Neidle said it was ‘very unusual’ for someone to pay the incorrect amount of stamp duty when receiving tax advice.

He said there were three possibilities owing to her mix-up. Namely, Ms Rayner may have got the law wrong, she didn’t take the right advice or she didn’t disclose all the facts to her legal team.

He said if she took the wrong advice then she’ll have to pay the stamp duty, plus interest.

But if she didn’t take appropriate advice, she could face what he described as possible ‘carelessness’ penalties.

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch is pressing Sir Keir Starmer to explain when he found out about Angela Rayner’s tax affairs and exactly what he knew.

Speaking to the BBC, Ms Badenoch said:

It is important that the public can see that the government – who are setting tax policy, making decisions about all our lives – are following the rules that they set.

After asking the Prime Minister why Ms Rayner was still on the frontbench, Ms Badenoch reiterated the Deputy Prime Minister’s position is ‘untenable’.

If you are the deputy PM helping to set tax policy, if you are the housing minister deciding where people are going to live, how much that is going to cost, you need to get your own affairs in order.

Downing Street has said it will not ‘get ahead’ of the independent ethics adviser’s investigation into Angela Rayner’s tax affairs when asked whether she would be expected to resign if found to have breached ministerial standards.

Sir Keir Starmer’s spokesman said:

As you’d expect, we’re not going to get ahead of the process. As she’s set out in her statement today, she’s referred herself to the independent adviser. She will provide him with her fullest co-operation and access to all the information he requires. It is now up to the independent adviser to conduct that process.

The independent adviser will advise the Prime Minister on next steps. He will provide information to the Prime Minister as part of that process. But I’m not going to get ahead of that.

The official said it was up to the independent adviser when asked how long the probe might take.

Sir Keir Starmer believes Angela Rayner should ‘pay what is due’ if tax authorities find she owes additional stamp duty on her Hove flat.

The Prime Minister’s spokesman told reporters:

He thinks she should pay what is due, which is obviously what she has said.

Evading questions on whether Ms Rayner should pay a fine, the spokesman said:

She will work with lawyers and HMRC, she says in her statement, to resolve the issue and pay what is due.

Angela Rayner has been accused of hypocrisy over the stamp duty row as she has repeatedly hit out at ‘tax dodgers’ during her years as an MP in the House of Commons.

This included calling for Nadhim Zahawi to be sacked as Tory chairman in 2023 following the revelation that his tax affairs were under investigation by HMRC.

Here’s the views of the Mail on Sunday’s political commentator Dan Hodges:

Reform’s deputy leader Richard Tice has also called on Ms Rayner to resign, describing her position as ‘completely indefensible’.

Speaking to Sky News, Tice said:

If anyone from any other party had been in that situation and tried to dodge paying the correct amount of tax, no-one would have screamed and hollered louder than the Deputy Prime Minister. Morally, her situation was always completely indefensible.

It’s right that she pays the correct amount of tax, I would expect that a penalty may well be imposed. But if she had any integrity, any moral decency given her position as Deputy Prime Minister, she would offer her resignation to the Prime Minister.

by Harriet Line, Daily Mail’s Deputy Political Editor

Angela Rayner has referred herself to the PM’s ministerial adviser, Laurie Magnus, over her property dealings.

When they are appointed ministers complete a declaration confirming that their tax affairs are up to date.

The ministerial code states that those who are allocated an official residence must ensure that ‘all personal tax liabilities’ are ‘properly discharged’.

‘Where a minister is allocated an official residence, they must ensure that all personal tax liabilities, including any council tax, are properly discharged and that they personally pay such liabilities,’ the text says.

Ms Rayner said today that she ‘alerted and referred’ herself to the independent adviser ‘as soon as’ she learned she had been liable to pay additional stamp duty on the Hove property.

If an investigation is carried out – and she is found to have breached the standards expected of ministers – Sir Laurie will advise the Prime Minister on what sanction should be considered.

But a decision on whether a minister remains in office is for the Prime Minister, the code states.

He is the ‘ultimate judge of the standards of behaviour expected of a minister and the appropriate consequences of a breach of those standards’.

Ms Rayner could be sacked from her Cabinet roles, but she would remain deputy leader of the Labour Party as the position is elected.

Angela Rayner has to resign.

Set aside the obvious and understandable emotion. Ignore the desire – equally understandable – to protect her family.

She has broken the rules. She has, by her own admission, failed to pay the appropriate amount of tax. So now she has to go.

Not least because of the hypocrisy and lies. Yes, Rayner may have been prevented from speaking out on her own behalf because of a court order. But her allies and supporters were not gagged. And the line they peddled on her behalf was clear.

A former Labour MP has said it is ‘obvious’ Angela Rayner must resign following her admission she didn’t pay enough stamp duty.

Simon Danczuk, who represented Labour in Rochdale for seven years in Parliament but has now switched to Reform, told the Telegraph:

Obviously, Angela Rayner must now resign. But it’s important to note those politicians consoling, supporting, defending her are as much part of the problem. They too bring British politics into disrepute. The public expect this wrong doing to be punished, not sympathised with.

This is the moment Kemi Badenoch challenged the Prime Minister to sack Angela Rayner at Prime Minister’s Questions earlier in the Commons.

The Conservative lader suggested Sir Keir Starmer had no ‘backbone’ to dismiss the Deputy Prime Minister.

Watch the exchange below:

Angela Rayner’s political future appears in the hands of Sir Laurie Magnus, the Prime Minister’s Independent Adviser on Ministerial Standards.

Ms Rayner said she will be provide the ethics adviser with her ‘fullest co-operation and access to all the information he requires’.

Sir Laurie will rule on whether Ms Rayner breached standards.

Any breach will surely place her political future in doubt after she was considered among the frontrunners to become a future Labour Party leader.

Pressed on whether she had considered standing down, she said she had ‘spoken to my family about it’ and ‘the number one priority for me and my ex-husband has always been to support our children and do the best thing for our children’.

Prior to last year’s general election, the Tories urged HMRC to investigate Ms Rayner over whether she had paid enough tax after selling her former council home almost a decade earlier.

It came following a Mail on Sunday’s exclusive investigation which suggested she could have been liable for up to £3,000 capital gains tax after the house was sold for £48,500 profit.

But HMRC were understood to have looked into the matter at Ms Rayner’s request and concluded there was no capital gains tax liability.

The Prime Minister insisted he was ‘proud’ to sit alongside Angela Rayner as he faced calls to sack the Deputy Prime Minister from Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch at Prime Minister’s Questions.

Sir Keir said in response:

(Ms Rayner) has explained her personal circumstances in detail. She’s gone over and above in setting out the details, including yesterday afternoon asking a court to lift the confidentiality order in relation to her own son.

I know from speaking at length with the Deputy Prime Minister, just how difficult that decision was for her and her family, but she did it to ensure that all the information is in the public domain.

I can be clear, I am very proud to sit alongside a Deputy Prime Minister who is building 1.5 million homes, who is bringing the biggest upgrade to workers’ rights for a generation, and has come from a working class background to be Deputy Prime Minister.

Ms Rayner has released a statement confirming she is working with HMRC and lawyers to ensure she pays the correct amount of stamp duty.

In a statement, she said:

When purchasing the property my understanding, on advice from lawyers, was that my circumstances meant I was liable for the standard rate of stamp duty.

However, given the recent allegations in the press I have subsequently sought further advice from a leading tax counsel to review that position and to ensure I am fully compliant with all tax provisions.

I have now been advised that although I did not own any other property at the time of the purchase, the application of complex deeming provisions which relate to my son’s trust gives rise to additional stamp duty liabilities.

I acknowledge that due to my reliance on advice from lawyers which did not properly take account of these provisions, I did not pay the appropriate stamp duty at the time of the purchase. I am working with expert lawyers and with HMRC to resolve the matter and pay what is due.

Shadow chancellor Mel Stride is the latest Conservative to attack Ms Rayner following her admission on not paying enough stamp duty.

Mr Stride said it was ‘utterly extraordinary’ Ms Rayner failed to correctly pay the right amount of taxes as families are hit by ‘Labour’s tax hikes’.

Angela Rayner has been dubbed ‘Three Pads’ Rayner following her purchase of a flat in Hove.

She is said to have saved £40,000 in stamp duty on the apartment because she removed her name from the deeds of a family property in her constituency of Ashton-under-Lyne in Greater Manchester.

The deed changes supposedly allowed Ms Rayner to pay £30,000 in stamp duty instead of £70,000, which would have been applied if the Hove property was her second home.

But the Hove flat is not her ‘main residence’ for council tax purposes, with the Ashton-under-Lyne home remaining her primary residence.

This is said to save some £2,000 in council tax on her third home, a three-bedroom grace-and-favour flat in Admiralty House.

Here’s what Angela Rayner said about the then Conservative Party chairman Nadhim Zahawi who resigned over a tax error in January 2023.

Kemi Badenoch has asked Sir Keir Starmer why Angela Rayner is still in office following her admission on underpaying stamp duty.

In response to the Conservative leader, Sir Keir said Ms Rayner has gone ‘over and above’ setting out the detail of her tax affairs which he said included asking a court to lift a confidentiality order relating to her son yesterday.

The Prime Minister adds he’s proud to sit beside Rayner who has risen from a ‘working class background’ to Deputy Prime Minister.

Earlier, Ms Rayner took her seat on the frontbench and received a hug from Commons Leader Lucy Powell before the session started.

Angela Rayner was in tears as she admitted she hadn’t paid enough stamp duty on a property she purchased a £800,000 property in Hove.

She was reported to have saved £40,000 in stamp duty on the flat because she removed her name from the deeds of a family property in her Ashton-under-Lyne constituency, meaning the Hove property is the only property she owns.

She told Sky’s Electoral Dysfunction podcast:

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.

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.

Here’s our breaking news story on Angela Rayner following the Deputy Prime Minister’s admission she underpaid stamp duty on her second home.

Ms Rayner admitted her error during an interview with Sky News which emerged this morning.

Stick with us for more developments and reaction with Prime Minister’s Questions about to take place.

Hello and welcome to the Daily Mail’s live blog as Angela Rayner admits she did not pay enough stamp duty on her second home and has considered resigning.

The Deputy Prime Minister said that she has referred herself to the independent adviser on ministerial standards.

Ms Rayner said she had received inaccurate tax advice and had spoken to her family about quitting.

The Housing Secretary has been under intense pressure over her tax affairs after media reports about her purchase of a flat in Hove.