"Angela Rayner's departure from cabinet marks an abrupt end for a politician who had fought doggedly to reach Labour's top table. It also represents an old-fashioned scalp for the press, elements of which have been poring over her finances and living arrangements for more than a year. The frustration among Rayner's friends is that she had already survived waves of stories aimed at derailing her political career."
"However, they say her admission that she did not pay the correct stamp duty on the purchase of a Hove flat, which some see as a maddening own goal, gave her opponents a clear opening. The Telegraph was already claiming victory on Wednesday, reliving how it had exposed crucial details of the Labour deputy leader's tax arrangements on the flat purchase at the end of last week."
Angela Rayner left the cabinet after admitting an error in stamp duty payment on a Hove flat purchase. National newspapers had been scrutinising her finances and living arrangements for more than a year. Earlier allegations that she avoided tax on the sale of a former home prompted a Greater Manchester police inquiry that found no criminality and an HMRC confirmation that no tax was owed. The Mail on Sunday first reported the Hove purchase, and the Telegraph later revealed further tax details. Rayner stated that the Hove property is the only one she owns. Her statement also disclosed a court order, a divorce, shifting living arrangements and a trust for her disabled son.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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