Rayner insists she did not dodge tax on home

ANGELA Rayner launched an emotional defence of her housing arrangements yesterday – but sidestepped questions about where she was living for six years.

Labour’s deputy leader has been mired in controversy for weeks after The Mail on Sunday revealed she made a £48,500 profit on her council house after purchasing it through the right-to-buy scheme.

Tax experts have suggested she could have been liable for up to £3,000 in capital gains tax on the sale of the property in Stockport, Greater Manchester. Neighbours say it was effectively a second home for six years, in which they say she was living at her thenhusband’s house a mile away.

Ms Rayner, 43, spoke on the issue yesterday while fielding questions at a Westminster lunch. She said she had done ‘nothing wrong’, but dodged questions about which property she had been living in. Ms Rayner bought the former council home in Vicarage Road in January 2007, before becoming an MP in 2015. She married Mark Rayner in 2010 and when the couple re-registered the births of their two sons that year they provided his address in nearby Lowndes Lane.

Ms Rayner remained on the electoral roll at Vicarage Road until 2015 when she sold the house. Tax experts pointed out that a married couple can only have one main residence, with capital gains tax due on the sale of a second property.

Yesterday Ms Rayner said she had ‘not dodged tax’, saying: ‘It was my home and I took legal advice... There

‘There’s no tax for me to pay’

is no capital gains tax for me to pay.’

She told the Mail that Vicarage Road was her ‘principal property’ but said that she would ‘spend time’ at Lowndes Lane. She revealed one son spent months in intensive care after being born prematurely, saying: ‘I wasn’t really bothered about where my clothes were on certain nights... But my house was my house at Vicarage Road.’

Police have found no evidence any offence had been committed over the issue.