Angela Rayner was fighting for her political future today after admitting she didn’t pay enough stamp duty on her new seaside flat.
The Deputy Prime Minister said she ‘deeply regrets’ the error made when purchasing her £800,000 apartment in Hove, East Sussex.
In a tearful TV interview, a ‘devastated’ Ms Rayner revealed she has referred herself to an ethics watchdog to investigate whether she had broken ministerial rules.
The 45-year-old, who is also the Housing Secretary, said she had told HMRC she owes more tax, adding that she is ‘prepared’ to stump up the extra cash.
She also admitted she had discussed resigning from her Government role with her family, amid days of intense scrutiny over her property affairs.
The Tories said it was ‘utterly extraordinary’ that Ms Rayner had failed to pay enough stamp duty, following Labour’s tax hikes since winning power last year.
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch called on Sir Keir to show a ‘backbone’ and sack his Deputy PM as they clashed at Prime Minister’s Questions this afternoon.
Ms Rayner said a court order had previously prevented her from disclosing further information about her housing arrangements, but added this had been lifted last night.
She described how her son has ‘life-long disabilities’ and that her interest in her family home in Greater Manchester had been transferred to a ‘court-instructed trust’ during her divorce from her ex-husband in 2023.
Ms Rayner has referred herself to Sir Laurie Magnus, who is Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s independent adviser on ministers’ interests.
The Deputy PM 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.
In a tearful TV interview, a ‘devastated’ Angela Rayner revealed she has referred herself to an ethics watchdog to investigate whether she had broken ministerial rules
The Deputy Prime Minister said she ‘deeply regrets’ not paying enough stamp duty when purchasing her £800,000 apartment in Hove, East Sussex
Ms Rayner was supported by Sir Keir at Prime Minister’s Questions in the Commons this afternoon, as Tory leader Kemi Badenoch demanded her sacking
The Deputy PM has been dubbed ‘Three Pads’ Rayner following her purchase of the Hove flat.
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.
Ms Rayner was backed by Sir Keir at Prime Minister’s Questions in the Commons this afternoon.
As she sat alongside the PM on the Government front bench ahead of the session, Sir Keir placed a supportive hand on Ms Rayner’s shoulder.
Ms Rayner also received a hug from Commons Leader Lucy Powell.
During PMQs, Sir Keir said he was ‘very proud’ to sit alongside Ms Rayner as he faced calls to sack his Deputy PM from Mrs Badenoch.
He told MPs that Ms Rayner had ‘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,’ the PM added.
‘I know from speaking at length with the Deputy PM, 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.’
Ms Badenoch said: ‘I’m not sure we would have heard all that sympathy if it was a Conservative deputy prime minister who had underpaid her tax.
She told Sir Keir: ‘If he had a backbone he would sack her.’
Tory shadow chancellor Sir Mel Stride tweeted: ‘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.
‘The Deputy Prime Minister should not be setting the rules when she fails to keep them herself.’
The PMQs exchanges came half an hour after the Deputy PM gave an emotional TV interview, while also releasing a statement to admit she had underpaid tax.
Ms Rayner said she had been ‘in shock’ and ‘devastated’ over the fallout from the row over her property arrangements.
Asked whether she had considered resigning, the Deputy PM told Sky News: ‘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.’
Pressed again 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’.
Mrs Badenoch called on Sir Keir to show a ‘backbone’ and sack his Deputy PM as they clashed at PMQs
Tory shadow chancellor Sir Mel Stride said it was ‘utterly extraordinary’ that Ms Rayner had failed to pay enough tax on her property purchase
The Conservatives flagged previous attacks by Ms Rayner on the tax affairs of political opponents
Ms Rayner said she had ‘alerted and referred’ herself to Sir Laurie, the independent adviser on the ministerial code, ‘as soon as’ she learned she had been liable to pay additional stamp duty.
The Deputy PM said she had taken legal advice on buying the flat in Hove which suggested she was ‘liable to pay standard stamp duty’ but had then sought ‘expert counsel advice’ following media reporting about the arrangement, and learned that she was liable to pay additional stamp duty.
She told Sky News: ‘As soon as I knew that that was the case, I have alerted and referred myself to the independent adviser on the ministerial code to ensure that they can look transparently at what has happened, and also contacted HMRC to say that, there is additional tax owing on this, and that I’m prepared to pay that and fully comply with the HMRC as well.’
Asked whether the accusations that she had underpaid stamp duty were correct, she said: ‘They are accurate. Yes.
‘Accurate in a different sense. 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.’
She admitted she had made a ‘mistake’, adding: ‘People make mistakes, but I conducted myself in trying to do the right thing, and I hope that people can see that.’
Last week, Ms Rayner’s office strongly disputed any notion she had ‘dodged’ paying stamp duty or any suggestion of impropriety.
A spokesperson for Ms Rayner had said: ‘The Deputy PM paid the relevant duty owing on the purchase of the Hove property in line with relevant requirements and entirely properly, any suggestion otherwise is entirely without basis.’
Ms Rayner has repeatedly hit out at ‘tax dodgers’ during her years as an MP.
In November 2017, she praised then-Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn for raising the ‘tax dodging issue’ during Prime Minister’s Questions in the House of Commons.
‘The public are furious with those who get away with tax avoidance while they pay!,’ she tweeted.
In March 2021, Ms Rayner attacked then-chancellor Rishi Sunak’s extension of a stamp duty holiday on the first £500,000 of all property sales.
She claimed at the time it would be ‘a massive tax cut for wealthy second home owners and landlords’.
Ms Rayner added on social media: ‘Rishi Sunak will hand half a billion pounds to landlords and second homeowners by extending the stamp duty holiday.
‘Meanwhile, he is refusing to give our NHS and social care heroes the pay rise they deserve.’
When the stamp duty cut was first introduced by the previous Conservative government, in an attempt to boost property sales during the Covid crisis, Ms Rayner warned the move had ‘inflated the housing market and provided a tax giveaway worth thousands for wealthy homeowners’.
In April 2018, Ms Rayner blasted a ‘Tory tax loophole’ amid claims the then-health secretary Jeremy Hunt saved almost £100,000 in stamp duty on his purchase of seven flats.
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