Starmer accuses PM of 'smearing' working-class Rayner

Sir Keir Starmer has accused Rishi Sunak of “smearing a working-class woman” after the PM made a jibe about Angela Rayner’s tax affairs.

Police are investigating Ms Rayner after claims she should have paid tax on the profits of a house sale.

Sir Keir is backing his deputy, who has said she will stand down if she is found to have broken the law.

But the Conservatives say Ms Rayner should publish the legal advice she says proves she has done nothing wrong.

At Prime Minister’s Questions, Sir Keir Starmer launched an attack on former Prime Minister Liz Truss, who this week published a book entitled Ten Years to Save the West.

The Labour leader joked that he was the “proud owner” of a copy, adding: “It is a rare unsigned copy. It is the only unsigned copy.

“It is quite the read. She claims the Tory Party’s disastrous kamikaze budget that triggered chaos for millions was – her words – ‘the happiest moment of her premiership’.

“Has the prime minister met anyone with a mortgage who agrees?”

To loud cheers from his his own side, Mr Sunak replied: “All I would say is he ought to spend a bit less time reading that book and a bit more time reading the deputy leader’s [Angela Rayner] tax advice.”

Sir Keir leapt to the defence of Ms Rayner, who was sat behind him on the front bench, accusing Mr Sunak of being a “billionaire prime minister” who had used “schemes to avoid millions of pounds of tax” and was now “smearing a working-class woman”.

Angela Rayner and Keir Starmer at Labour’s conference in 2023

The Labour leader has said he is “fully confident” Ms Rayner has not broken any rules and welcomes the police inquiry as an opportunity to clear the matter up.

But he has come under fire from Conservatives for not asking to see the tax and legal advice Ms Rayner has received.

Sir Keir’s spokesman said the Labour leader’s team had seen the advice and it was “clear” that Ms Rayner had followed the rules at all times. He rejected claims Sir Keir had avoided reading the advice to protect himself.

Asked how inquiries about legal advice amounted to a “smear”, Sir Keir’s spokesman said: “I think it is clear from some of the language being used that it has gone way beyond simply asking questions.”

Investigation

He insisted Sir Keir’s characterisations of Tory attacks on Ms Rayner had been correct, although Labour has yet to provide any examples of alleged smears.

And Labour declined to say whether the Labour Party or Ms Rayner herself had paid for advice she has received.

Last Friday, Greater Manchester Police (GMP) said they were reopening an investigation into claims about Ms Rayner’s living arrangements in 2015.

It had previously decided not to investigate, but reversed its decision after reassessing information it had received from Conservative MP James Daly.

The police inquiry was initially thought to be solely into claims Ms Rayner falsely registered her address on the electoral roll, although there are now reports it may be wider than that.

In an interview on BBC Radio Manchester, Greater Manchester Police Chief Constable Stephen Watson said “there are a number of assertions knocking about” and “we are going to get to the bottom of what has happened”.

‘Family home’

Ms Rayner bought her former council house in 2007 under the right-to-buy scheme, and is said to have made a £48,500 profit when she sold it eight years later.

She was registered as living at that house, on Vicarage Road, Stockport, in Greater Manchester, on the electoral roll until the sale in 2015.

But she appears to have given two different addresses when she re-registered the births of two of her children in 2010 following her marriage to Mark Rayner, listing her then-husband’s home on Lowndes Lane.

Which home was her main residence is at the heart of a row over whether she should have paid capital gains tax on the profits from the sale of her property.

Her former staffer Matt Finnegan has now given a statement to GMP claiming to have visited her at the Lowndes Lane property in the summer of 2014, around the time she became a parliamentary candidate.

“There was no doubt in my mind that this was Ms Rayner’s family home, where she lived with her then husband, Mark,” he added in the statement, reported by the Sunday Times.