Labour refuses to share files in Rayner council house investigation

LABOUR is refusing to publish documents that would reveal where Angela Rayner claimed to be living when she applied to be a parliamentary candidate.

The party will not say which address she put down on internal selection papers in 2014 or whether the documents still exist, citing the police investigation into its deputy leader.

Officers are investigating claims she wrongly declared which house was her permanent address on the electoral register, which is a criminal offence.

Ms Rayner says her former home on Vicarage Road in Stockport which she purchased through the right to buy scheme at a discount for £79,000 in 2007 was her “principal property” until she sold it in 2015.

She was registered at the property for five years after she married Mark Rayner in 2010, while he was listed at an address in Lowndes Lane a mile away. However, neighbours claim she was living with her husband at Lowndes Lane.

Ms Rayner has also faced questions about whether she should have paid capital gains tax for the £48,500 profit she made on the sale of the former council house as a result of the confusion over her principal residency.

Nomination papers lodged with the returning officer for her election campaign have been destroyed, but Labour could still hold internal documents from her application to be a candidate, which would include her main address.

If she had listed her husband’s address it would cast fresh doubts on her claim she was living in her own home. However if she put down the Vicarage Road property it may help her defend herself against claims she was actually living at Lowndes Lane.

Neighbours have claimed she is lying about only moving to her then husband’s property after selling her house for £127,500 in March 2015, two months before the election.

Ms Rayner was selected as the Labour candidate for Ashton-under-lyne in September 2014 after putting herself forward in July that year.

The documents Labour is refusing to release are one of two sets of papers she would have submitted before becoming an MP – one form to become the party candidate and another application to stand at the election with the returning officer appointed by Tameside Council.

The official nomination papers may only be inspected when they are delivered, and only by candidates, their election agent, their proposer and seconder.

After 12 months all election documents held by the Electoral Registration Officer are destroyed unless a court order directs otherwise. It means that unless Ms Rayner or her team kept a copy of her own nomination papers, it will never be possible to check which address she put down.

But if internal papers are still held by Labour officials they could reveal which address she said she was living at.

Providing a false address on the electoral roll is an offence under the Representation of the People Act 1983 but there is a limit of one year, or two in exceptional circumstances, for launching a prosecution.