Rayner ‘gossip’ is dismissed by Cooper

DEPUTY Labour leader Angela Rayner will focus on facts rather than “gossip” in the ongoing row over her living arrangements, Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said.

It comes after The Sunday Times reported that her former aide said there was “no doubt in my mind that this was Ms Rayner’s family home”, when he visited her at what she says was her husband’s address in 2014.

Police are investigating whether Labour’s deputy leader broke electoral law after Tory allegations that she may have given false information about her main residence a decade ago.

Ms Rayner has promised to resign if she is found to have committed a crime over the accusations, but said she “followed the rules at all times”.

Ms Cooper told BBC One’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg that Ms Rayner is “very keen” to set out the facts to police and HM Revenue and Customs.

She said: “It allows her to set out all the facts – not the sort of gossip, not the different allegations that we’ve had from Conservative MPs.

“We understand this is the runup to local elections, we have seen this before as we saw with the Durham case as well.”

Durham Police cleared Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer and Ms Rayner over allegations that they broke coronavirus rules by having a takeaway curry with colleagues while campaigning for local elections in 2021.

The current row is over Ms Rayner being registered at an ex-council house she bought in Stockport.

But it is understood Conservative Party deputy chairman James Daly has suggested neighbours say she lived with her husband at a separate property.

Ms Cooper added: “This is obviously about her family arrangements, her personal finances, and that’s really how it should be dealt with instead.”