The matter of Angela Rayner's house sale isn't going away.....

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/angela-rayner-manchester-police-investigation-b2529840.html

It’s tax - did she And should she have paid capital gains on the house sale. In comparison with Hunt - well there is no comparison. It does feel like a witch hunt - obviously police must investigate but the timing worries me.
It’s like the Durham beer - investigations running along local elections

Suggests or are investigating?

It seems to be more than just CGT on the house sale - that is a single issue.

According to The Telegraph: Angela Rayner is being investigated over multiple allegations, the Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police has implied. Stephen Watson said there were "a number of assertions knocking about", and the force would "get to the bottom" of them.

The Guardian reports:

Stephen Watson, the chief constable of GMP, noted that the decision to launch a formal investigation on Friday “does not imply” the information provided to police by James Daly, the deputy chair of the Conservative party, “gives us any hard and fast evidence”.

On Monday's BBC Politics Live, James Daley MP was asked three times by Jo Coburn what further allegations he had made but he refused repeatedly to say. One might assume that having being given some bullets to fire by his boss Richard Holden - pusher of the Beergate nonsense but who doesn’t want egg on his face again - he’s worrying he might have to carry the can in a libel case.

twitter.com/BBCPolitics/status/1779867745774977279

The DM report a story from a former aide who, based on one visit to Mark Rayner’s property in the summer of 2014, is apparently able to say what living arangements the couple had from 2010 onwards.

This is the aide who left under mysterious circumstances and then wrote a thriller novel basing his central character on Angela Rayner in which she murders the shadow chancellor. You couldn’t make it up - except that he has. Someone else who has been cashing in and now doing so again.

Unbelievable, again thank you TinSoldier

I read the aide’s story in the Sunday Times. He wasn’t purporting to say what AR’s living arrangements were from 2010 onwards. He said he had to visit her at home on one occasion and ‘home’ was her husband’s house - she arrived after he did and said it was ‘good to be home’. She was, he said, clearly living there.

I have noticed in several reports that she refers to the house she owned as here ‘principal property’. Of course it was, as it was the only property she owned. However it was not, for some time, her ‘principal private residence’ and that is what is relevant for the purposes of the current investigations of which we know. Her words are, to my mind, very carefully chosen.

Did he view the bedrooms and bathroom?

Anniebach

Unbelievable, again thank you TinSoldier

The Daly clip says it all - he piles on allegations not naming any. I'm sure there are some questions to be answered but it's the way its being handled and seized upon/hints dropped/not answered that make me agree - its a smear campaign.

Anniebach

Did he view the bedrooms and bathroom?

Nice one Annie...

The people that are hounding Rayner over the matter of a few thousand pounds are, I believe, multi millionaires, one of whom, I believe, had non dom status.

Just read about the former aide's book on Amazon:

"Sometime in the future…Politics clashes with the personal during a tumultuous week at the Labour Party’s Annual Conference in Manchester. Abi Jeffers fancies her chances of becoming Labour's first woman Leader, but hot favourite Shadow Chancellor, Derek Woods stands in her way. His Special Adviser, Jack Marsden meanwhile is the unwitting victim of ex-partner Sandra Clinton's thirst for vengeance. As the battle for power unfolds in the midst of a personal vendetta, rival SpAds spin and plot under the watchful eye of tabloid journalist Ray McManus. Events soon spiral out of control, with a looming expenses scandal, sex, betrayal and revenge triggering tragic consequences. This explosive political thriller tells the inside story of a shocking week at a Labour Party Conference. After all, a week is a long time in politics... "

Fact or fiction?

This aide took Angela Rayner to an employment tribunal in 2018, citing disability discrimination when he was sacked. I don't suppose he bears a grudge or anything.

"Stephen Watson, the chief constable of GMP, noted that the decision on Friday to launch a formal investigation “does not imply” the information provided to police by James Daly, the deputy chair of the Conservative party, “gives us any hard and fast evidence”."

Yesterdays guardian www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/apr/17/angela-rayner-police-investigation-gmp

Anniebach

Did he view the bedrooms and bathroom?

What’s that saying of yours about rock bottom Annie?

‘Rock bottom and still drilling’. GSM

I am not there by speaking of the bedroom and bathroom’ , Angela Rayner has not been charged

I like Angela. And that's all I have to say.

The Telegraph today:

“ Police are investigating Angela Rayner over council tax fraud claims alongside possible electoral offences, with around a dozen officers assigned to the case.

On Tuesday, Stephen Watson, the Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police (GMP), said there were “a number of assertions knocking about” that the force would “get to the bottom of”.

Stockport council is understood to have been assessing correspondence from James Daly, the Conservative deputy chairman, about what Ms Rayner’s council tax arrangements were.”

Interesting. Thanks Urms.

There have been no new developments since yesterday it seems.
Blimey - how long should a few cross reference checks take? This should’ve been done and dusted by now!

What Urmstongran posted was not the full transcript.

“We, on an initial assessment, made a determination that it was unlikely we would pursue an investigation. On the provision of further investigation or further information, we have reassessed that decision and we have announced we will launch a formal investigation.”

He added: “That is a neutral act, it does not imply that information gives us any hard or fast evidence in which to base anything at this stage. It is simply that we have an allegation, these allegations are all over the news, we are going to get to the bottom of what has happened.”

The police acting with integrity.
The more the tories try to undermine Raynor the more I dislike their tactics
Brass neck

Urmstongran

There have been no new developments since yesterday it seems.
Blimey - how long should a few cross reference checks take? This should’ve been done and dusted by now!

Maybe Manchester Police was distracted by a few other crimes.

growstuff

Urmstongran

There have been no new developments since yesterday it seems.
Blimey - how long should a few cross reference checks take? This should’ve been done and dusted by now!

Maybe Manchester Police was distracted by a few other crimes.

It’s quite a busy area GMP, operating with I think 20 percent less officers than they had ten years ago. There’s serious criminal activity, COCG etc

But the relevant statutes of limitations have past and the DPP can’t actually prosecute anyway. Such a monumental waste of time and money.

Attacks on Rayner
Sir, Having served for nine years as an MP I know how low politicians can stoop when their backs are against the wall. But the Conservative attack on Angela Rayner is one of the most grotesque spectacles of hypocrisy I have witnessed. On one side is a billionaire Tory peer, Lord Ashcroft, and a multimillionaire Tory prime minister, Rishi Sunak, whose families have all avoided paying millions of pounds in UK tax as beneficiaries of non-dom status and who live lives of luxury. On the other is a woman who grew up in poverty caring for her illiterate mother, who is now mother to a child who is registered blind, and who through her own guts and character has risen to be deputy leader of the Labour Party. Even Rayner’s accusers accept that the most she might have benefited from the error that they allege ­— and which she denies — is less than £3,000 in tax.
I suppose that her attackers cannot bear the idea that they are about to lose to a woman who pulled herself up by her bootstraps. And who is going wipe the floor with them.
Nick Boles
London SE5
This letter was in yesterdays Times.