Rayner’s brother refuses to answer any questions on deputy leader’s house row
ANGELA RAYNER’S brother has refused to answer questions over the deputy Labour leader’s former council home as he was pictured for the first time since the scandal broke.
Darren Bowen, 46, said he had “no comment” to make when approached about his involvement in the row before driving away. It has been claimed that in the early 2010s, Mr Bowen was living at a property on Vicarage Road in Stockport, owned by his sister, and that he referred to her as his “landlady”.
Ms Rayner has insisted that she lived at the property full-time and that it was her primary residence.
Greater Manchester Police is investigating whether she was living at her husband’s home on nearby Lowndes Lane and if so, if she was liable to pay capital gains tax on the 2015 sale of the Vicarage Road home.
Rayner is expected to claim that she was not required to pay capital gains tax when she sold the house in 2015 after writing off the levy with a kitchen extension. A Labour source said last week: “Angela has consistently said that the house she owned was her main home and that no capital gains tax was payable on the sale.”
Police are also looking at whether she could have committed an offence by putting an incorrect address on the electoral roll.
Mr Bowen, who now lives a half-hour drive away from Stockport, shares his new detached home with his partner. When initially approached by The Telegraph earlier this week, his partner denied he was living there despite images on social media showing the couple moving into the property in 2022. Yesterday, Mr Bowen left the property shortly after 7.30am.
It comes as the new owners of the Vicarage Road address, who did not wish to be named, said the street was divided over whether Ms Rayner had lived at the property. They believe she did, saying: “She obviously lived here, there’s no denying that,” adding: “She was obviously registered to this address, she lived here, we still receive some of her post.”
In February, Ms Rayner insisted that her Vicarage Road home was her primary residence. Ms Rayner has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.