Rayner withholds tax advice

Angela Rayner said she would not publish the tax advice she received on the sale of her council house, as Sir Keir Starmer backed his deputy’s decision and expressed his “full confidence” in her amid fresh scrutiny over her living situation a decade ago.

Ms Rayner said she would only release the “personal” information if the Conservatives calling for her to do so publish theirs.

It comes after Greater Manchester Police said it was reassessing its decision not to investigate allegations she gave false information on official documents, after pressure from Conservative Party deputy chairman James Daly.

Labour’s deputy leader has faced questions about whether she paid the right amount of tax on the 2015 sale of her council house due to confusion over whether it was her principal residency.

The senior Labour MP yesterday again insisted she had “done absolutely nothing wrong” and took legal advice that no rules were broken.

Asked why she would not publish that advice, Ms Rayner said: “Because that’s my personal tax advice. But I’m happy to comply with the necessary authorities that want to see that.”

She said she would hand over the information to the police and HMRC, “but I’m not going to put out all of my personal details for the last 15 years about my family”.

Ms Rayner said if Mr Daly, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Chancellor Jeremy Hunt published their tax details for the last 15 years, she would do the same.

“If you show me yours, then I’ll show you mine,” she said.

Labour leader Mr Starmer publicly backed his deputy, telling his party’s local election campaign launch in the West Midlands yesterday: “Angela has my full support and my full confidence today and every day.”

Ms Rayner has rejected suggestions in a book by former Tory deputy chairman Lord Ashcroft that she failed to properly declare her main home.

The unauthorised biography alleges that the MP for Ashtonunder-Lyne bought her former council house, in Vicarage Road in Stockport, Greater Manchester, with a 25% discount in 2007 under the right-to-buy scheme.

Government guidance says that a tenant can apply to buy their council home through the right-to-buy scheme if it is their “only or main home”.

Her husband was listed at another address in Lowndes Lane, about a mile away, which had also been bought under the right-to-buy scheme.

Ms Rayner has insisted that Vicarage Road was her “principal property” despite her husband living elsewhere at the time.

But neighbours have reportedly disputed her claim that she lived apart from her husband.

DEFENCE: Angela Rayner says she has ‘done nothing wrong’.