How hard can it be to say where you lived Angela?
What Tories are asking as Labour says it is proud of deputy in ‘two-homes’ row
ANGELA Rayner has been accused of hypocrisy over her refusal to publish the tax advice on her controversial property dealings.
Labour Party chairman Anneliese Dodds yesterday said she was ‘proud’ of its deputy leader for her defiant stance – and claimed voters were not interested in claims that she may have dodged tax and even broken the law when she sold her former council house a decade ago.
But critics point out that Ms Rayner has been quick to accuse
‘Quick to call out Tory allegations’
Tories over allegations in the past – often calling for resignations before anything had been proven.
Ms Rayner called for former chancellor Nadhim Zahawi to be sacked over his tax affairs last year, saying: ‘If he’s lied and misled the public and HMRC... then I think his position is untenable.’
She also repeatedly urged Boris Johnson to stand down as PM during the Partygate probe.
Ms Rayner has steadfastly refused to publish the tax advice she says exonerates her over the 2015 sale of her Stockport home which neighbours say was effectively a second home while she lived with her husband nearby. She denies any wrongdoing.
On Thursday, as Ms Rayner found herself on the ropes, she said she would publish the advice only if Conservative ministers, including Rishi Sunak and Jeremy Hunt, also issued details of their tax affairs going back ‘15 years’.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said he had ‘full confidence’ in Ms Rayner but admitted he had not seen the tax advice himself.
Last night, a senior Tory source said: ‘Given the number of times Angela Rayner has asked other politicians to publish details about their personal lives and tax affairs, she should have no problem doing so herself. She is simply being asked to explain why she declared to the authorities she lived at an address neighbours say she had long moved out of and why no tax was paid on the sale of her second home.’
Stockport Council is now reviewing whether Ms Rayner claimed a single person’s council discount on the property, while allowing her brother to live there.
But Mrs Dodds told LBC: ‘I have got full confidence in Angela Rayner. I’m really proud she’s our deputy leader. And Angela will always do the right thing.’ She later told Sky News: ‘That kind of confidential advice that’s provided to an individual would not normally be made public. You haven’t found Conservative politicians making that public.
‘When you speak to people on the doorstep, they’re not particularly interested in petty politicking questions. What they’re interested in is what political parties are going to do for the money in their pockets, for the crumbling schools, the hospitals under pressure. Labour’s got a plan and Angela Rayner’s been setting out that plan to set things right.’