Angela Rayner’s Thatcher hypocrisy
Labour launched its local election campaign yesterday under the tagline “Britain’s Future”. Voters might be forgiven for taking a keener interest in its deputy leader’s past. Sir Keir Starmer has backed Angela Rayner amid allegations that she may have been liable for capital gains tax on the sale of a property in 2015, which she maintains was her primary residence and thus exempt.
Sir Keir says he supports Ms Rayner’s decision not to publish the tax advice she says she sought on the sale. “Are you going to be calling,” he asked, “for Tory ministers to publish all their legal and tax advice going back over the last 15 years?”
Such deflection is unlikely to wash with an electorate frustrated by the perception that different rules always seem to apply to politicians. At the very least, Ms Rayner needs to be more transparent about what happened. She should recognise that the public is entitled to ask questions of a politician who, within just a few months, could hold one of the highest offices in the land.
But at the heart of this story lies a separate apparent hypocrisy. Ms Rayner benefited from the landmark Right to Buy programme, brought in by Margaret Thatcher to enable council tenants to become homeowners and pave the way to Britain becoming a property-owning democracy. Millions of people took advantage of the scheme, breaking their previous dependence on the state.
Perhaps for this reason, the Left has long opposed the policy. Labour has suggested that it could tighten Right to Buy by slashing the discount offered to tenants who purchase their councilowned properties, raised to up to 70 per cent by the coalition government.
More generally, Labour shows little enthusiasm for the kinds of aspirational policies that Mrs Thatcher’s governments promoted to such great effect. Its attack on private schools is likely to result in fewer opportunities for bright children from poorer backgrounds, if it leads to a reduction in scholarships and bursaries. Labour’s tax and benefit plans remain cloaked in mystery, but they are unlikely to reward people with multiple homes by lowering their capital gains tax bills.
Last week, Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor, seemed to praise Mrs Thatcher, while rejecting her economic philosophy in its nearentirety. This is hard to square with the improvements in living standards enjoyed by millions – Ms Rayner among them – thanks to Thatcherite policies.