Angela Rayner's Hove flat: five questions for the deputy PM

"When she bought the flat in Hove in May, she listed it as her primary property, allowing her to pay an estimated 30,000 in stamp duty rather than the higher rate of 70,000. The problem with this is that she has separately listed her constituency home as her primary property, in a move which allowed her to avoid paying about 2,000 a year in council tax on her grace-and-favour apartment in London."

"The Ashton home has now been put fully into a trust, allowing her to remove her name from the deeds and buy the Hove flat. But she still spends a lot of her time in that house, given her children live there and it is the only property out of the three which is in her constituency. The Mail on Sunday revealed over the weekend that Rayner had put her Greater Manchester house partly in a trust in 2023, before fully selling up this year."

"Some have suggested Rayner used a trust to avoid her children paying inheritance tax when she dies. However, experts say that if she is living there at the time of her death, they will still have to pay the tax, regardless of whether it is held in trust. That implies there may have been non-tax reasons to choose a trust, including making sure that none of her children can sell their share in the house without the agreement of the others."

Rayner spends time in three properties: a constituency house in Ashton-under-Lyne, a grace-and-favour apartment in Admiralty House on Whitehall, and a flat in Hove. She designated the Hove flat as her primary residence when buying it in May, reducing stamp duty to about £30,000 instead of a higher rate. She separately listed the Ashton constituency home as primary to avoid roughly £2,000 a year in council tax on the London apartment. The Ashton home was placed in a trust administered by Shoosmiths, allowing removal from the deeds. Experts say living in a property at death can still trigger inheritance tax, suggesting non-tax motives such as restricting children from selling shares. The property valuation of £650,000 avoided an immediate inheritance tax charge, and advisers say no rules were broken.

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