Angela Rayner

If this thread about a specific aspect on Angela Rayner doesn’t generate interest it will wither on the vine. Until then, I’m interested.

TheHappyGardener

This is hilarious, reading the Labour supporters desperately trying to defend her 😂😂😂 Imagine if this had been a Tory minister back in the day??!!!! Listen to yourselves …….!

As others have said, she needs to go!

How do you know that people desperately trying to defend her are Labour supporters?

Some people are simply fair-minded, consider the facts and aren't engaged in an almost daily witch-hunt.

I don't get how a deputy prime minister wasn't able to understand the system on her own how also she's involved in housing I would have thought she should know the rules Borris having a birthday cake in lockdown while working was so over reacted to where's the reaction she's broken rules

FriedGreenTomatoes2

If this thread about a specific aspect on Angela Rayner doesn’t generate interest it will wither on the vine. Until then, I’m interested.

You must really hate her …

I liked Angela. But she really has to go.

I'm not remotely interested in reasons/excuses, what's done is done

.

I don’t hate Angela Rayner.
I do hate being taken for a fool though.

Angela Rayner has stated quite clearly that for council tax purposes her constituency house is her main residence. She has also stated quite clearly that for stamp duty purposes her new apartment in Hove is her principal residence.

What legal advice could she possibly need to know that this is impossible?

She was there shouting the loudest about Tories resigning over integrity issues.
I wonder if "doing a Rayner" will enter the vernacular, but not as a compliment.

What's also worrying is she seems to pick rubbish advice.

I understand it, it's a typical legal catch. You sell your house to a Trust set up to care for your disabled son as sole beneficiary, so you don't own the house any more. BUT because your ‘minor’ children live in it, you are 'deemed' to still have an 'interest' in it.

This means that if you buy another house, you have to pay extra stamp duty. What could be more obvious? 🤷‍♀️

It seems more than slightly odd that someone who is in charge of the country’s new housing should make such a basic mistake. I fall into the category of “Really Angela?”

She did not buy another house. She sold her share in one property to a trust and used the proceeds to buy another.

As I said above (but you can't have read or are ignoring) the goverment's own website says:

Higher rates for additional properties

You’ll usually have to pay 5% on top of SDLT rates if buying a new residential property means you’ll OWN more than one.

She doesn't OWN more than one.

Paynesgrey it’s not a witch hunt - it’s about expecting our Ministers (let’s not forget, she’s our Deputy PRIME MINISTER!) to have a quota of commonsense and integrity! Sadly lacking in Angela Rayner’s case I fear!

She should be sacked, otherwise what sort of a message does that send out.

So her tax advisors have been accused by her of being incompetent. Their reputation is on the line here. . How will they respond to that accusation???

Rayner knows she is under intense scrutiny from the Tories and the right wing media and had been even before Labour came to power. Remember Richard Holden's allegations over Beergate and Holden again with James Daly over her council house? Both allegations unfounded by the police and HMRC.

Since Labour came to power the media (and some people here) have been gunning for from the start. It started here the day after the election on 5 July 2025 and has been carried on relentlessly by the same people.

Do you really think she would have done something like this deliberately knowing that her every action is watched and commented on? She can't have a paddle in the sea without it making the headlines.

She made a mistake, has admitted it and has said she will put it right.

For the record, someone has 12 months to correct a mistake made over SDLT.

I don't recall Jeremy Hunt resigning after he 'forgot' about £100,000 of stamp duty.

Where does she say she had consulted tax advisers before this controversy?

She says this in her statement:

When purchasing the property my understanding, on advice from lawyers, was that my circumstances meant I was liable for the standard rate of stamp duty.

However, given the recent allegations in the press I have subsequently sought further advice from a leading tax counsel to review that position and to ensure I am fully compliant with all tax provisions. I have now been advised that although I did not own any other property at the time of the purchase, the application of complex deeming provisions which relate to my son’s trust gives rise to additional stamp duty liabilities.

As I have said repeatedly, lawyers are not necessarily tax specialists.

What is it you want her to do? Resign or be sacked because she was given poor advice about something that she is now taking steps to rectify?

I don’t want her to do anything or than provide transparency over the mess/oversight/bad advice.

I’m also curious what her advisers have to say!

PaynesGrey
You asked the question I have is who provided the capital for the trust to buy out her remaining share in the Ashton house?
She mentioned in her statement a traumatic incident involving the birth of one of her sons, who is disabled, and the trust being set up to ensure his future care & well-being.
I inferred from that, that there must have been a claim for compensation and the award funded the trust. So when Angela sold her share in the family home, the capital within the trust was used to buy her share.
I think there is absolutely nothing wrong with that.
As others have said, it will be interesting to see what comes out, if and when the first lot of tax lawyers disclose what was said. There may well be no written record and it will be Angela’s word against theirs.
I’m not a Labour supporter but I greatly admire Angela Rayner. I think she’s articulate and principled and her life story in overcoming her deprived background is extraordinary.
I very much hope she doesn’t resign.

MayBee70

Iam64

MayBee70

Can’t have too many threads bad mouthing her, can we…

Exactly - how very dare she breathe

The media ( and the people who own it) must be pretty scared of her the way they’re desperate to get her thrown out of parliament.

That certainly seems to be true MayBee.

What a malicious, venomous and spiteful thread and a second one had to be created to do it!

I don’t want her to do anything or than provide transparency over the mess/oversight/bad advice

That’s exactly what she has done in her statement and interview🤷‍♀️

Good point janeainsworth. That would make sense. The child's compensation trust fund used to buy the house that has been adapted for his use. That has now been confirmed:

www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/sep/03/angela-rayner-flat-controversy-how-did-it-happen-and-how-damaging-is-it

A spokesperson confirmed on Wednesday that the cash used to buy the Hove flat originally came from that payout. The trust now holds equity in the Ashton house instead.

It's worth repeating what else The Guardian has published about this:

When she bought the £800,000 property in May, she paid the standard rate of stamp duty, estimated to be £30,000, rather than the higher rate for second homes, which would have been as much as £70,000.

She says the reason she did so was that she had in January put her stake in her constituency home in Greater Manchester into a trust, with her children as the beneficiaries. Because she had removed her name from the deed of the house, she was advised that she no longer counted as the owner of the property and therefore could classify the Hove flat as her only dwelling.

Tax experts say, however, that stamp duty law is more complicated than that. If the terms of the trust were such that she or her children could live in the Greater Manchester property for the rest of their lives, it still would be likely to count as her main home for tax reasons.

Questions remain over who gave her the initial legal advice, what she told them and what the advice said. Experts say however that the piece of property law in question is so rarely invoked that a conveyancer might not have thought to ask about it.

James Liffen, a partner at the law firm Mishcon de Reya, said: “It should have been picked up, but it is something that requires a degree of specialist expertise beyond the average conveyancing solicitor.”

Nothing to see here, then. Move along please.

Oh wait.
Maybe the firm she took advice from have something interesting to say about all this?

I’m expecting more on this story in the newspapers tomorrow.

Oh dear. Has she really used her sons nhs compensation to help her buy the flat?

Apparently so karmalady. It was reported on the news earlier. It seems to be a total mess and to me what she has done to her sons life care is 100% worse than the issue of whether she should remain as an MP.

Nonsense.

The trustees managing the award have bought Rayner’s share of the house so that the trust now owns it for the benefit of her children. That would have been a joint decision of the trustees which include Shoosmiths law firm and not Rayner’s alone.

From Rayner’s statement:

In 2023 my ex-husband and I divorced … Some of the interest in our family home was transferred to the trust in 2023. In January 2025, I sold the remaining interest in the property to my son’s trust. This will give him the security of knowing the home is his, allowing him to continue to live in the home he feels safe in and grew up in. We transferred the property because it was in the best interests of our child.

She has used the proceeds (with the addition of a mortgage) to buy the Hove property.

I cannot see what there is to object to over the property arrangements.