Mystery over her name change on electoral roll

PART of the mystery of Angela Rayner’s post-marital living arrangements is a 2013 change she made to the electoral register.

At the time, Ms Rayner, who bought her former council house in Vicarage Road in 2007, had just moved beyond the five-year point after which the discount obtained on the purchase does not have to be returned to the council.

She received a discount of £26,000 from Stockport council on the right-to-buy price of £79,000. The rules state that owners must repay all the discounts if they sell within the first year.

After that the penalty would fall to 20 per cent in the second year, 15 per cent in the third and so forth. In 2013, Ms Rayner, who had been listed as Angela Bowen on the roll since 2007, changed her entry to Angela Rayner.

There she stayed until she left the roll shortly before becoming an MP in 2015 and put the house on the market.

Meanwhile, her husband Mark Rayner and her brother Darren Bowen were listed at Lowndes Lane. In April 2016, the Lowndes Lane house was sold for £145,250, and the Rayners moved to a £375,000 house in her Ashtonunder-Lyne constituency.

A spokesman for the Electoral Commission has told The Mail on Sunday that ‘it is not an offence to not update your entry on the register’ – but the same does not apply to actively recording the wrong information.

They added: ‘The commission does not have access to the details of an individual’s registration history, which are held by the relevant Electoral Registration Officer, therefore it is not possible to make a judgment on whether any offences took place. Any question relating to whether an offence has been committed in relation to registering to vote should be directed to the police.’