A court order is preventing full disclosure of the tax and ownership arrangements connected to a flat Angela Rayner bought in Hove. Rayner classified that flat as her primary home after removing her name from her Greater Manchester property deed, which reduced stamp duty liability. She lists the constituency house as her primary residence for council tax, affecting liability for a grace-and-favour Admiralty House apartment. A partial trust was placed on the Greater Manchester home in 2023, potentially affecting inheritance tax for her children. A Conservative chair requested an investigation but officials have not opened one; the prime minister backed Rayner.
Keir Starmer gave Rayner his full backing on Monday. She has come in for criticism since she bought the flat in Hove for 800,000 shortly after she removed her name from the deed of her constituency home in Greater Manchester. Because the flat was then classified as her primary home, she avoided having to 40,000 more in stamp duty than she would have done if it had been her second property.
There is a court order which restricts her from providing further information, which she's urgently working on rectifying in the interests of public transparency, No 10 said. Last week the Conservative party chair, Kevin Hollinrake, wrote to Laurie Magnus, the prime minister's adviser on ministerial interests, asking him to investigate whether or not Rayner had broken ministerial rules. Officials say Magnus has not begun an investigation, suggesting he does not believe there is enough evidence to warrant further inquiry.
Collection
[
|
...
]