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Angela Rayner

(270 Posts)
FriedGreenTomatoes2 Wed 03-Sept-25 13:06:43

Admits she didn’t pay enough tax. She cried this morning, on a SKY interview. Said she’d received poor legal advice, didn’t pay enough stamp duty on her new home in Hove and has referred herself to the Ethics Committee. Starmer still supports her.

Will she survive this debacle do we think?

Doodledog Fri 05-Sept-25 12:05:06

icanhandthemback

Witzend

The law company/conveyancers she used, said IIRC that they were not qualified to give the sort of specific advice she needed, and they were being made scapegoats.

The conveyancers can only act on the information given to them by the client. If the client misleads them, by design or by accident, they cannot give the correct advice.

Is that an accusation? Heavens, they are coming thick and fast, aren't they? There may have been no 'misleading', simply a misunderstanding of the law. If the company is not qualified they should have said that the case was beyond their remit and referred her to a more specialist company. I'm sure all concerned wish they had done so.

winterwhite Fri 05-Sept-25 12:06:15

Whatever else is learned from this it’s clear that our tax regulations need to be simplified.
Angela Rayner is not foolish. It seems pretty clear that she acted in good faith and I hope she survives all this. petty spite.

GrannyGravy13 Fri 05-Sept-25 12:06:35

It’s being reported that AR has resigned from her ministerial positions

Spinnaker Fri 05-Sept-25 12:11:13

GrannyGravy13

It’s being reported that AR has resigned from her ministerial positions

🍾🍾🍾

love0c Fri 05-Sept-25 12:18:32

I am very pleased she has gone. However, the country is in a state and I worry about the next few years until we get a general election.

Visgir1 Fri 05-Sept-25 12:19:34

Had no option, her poor judgement caused this.

Iam64 Fri 05-Sept-25 12:20:39

Her resignation letter so good

love0c Fri 05-Sept-25 12:39:34

A good letter? Not at all. She blamed the media and reporting for having to resign. She is to blame! No one else!

icanhandthemback Fri 05-Sept-25 12:43:05

Doodledog

icanhandthemback

Witzend

The law company/conveyancers she used, said IIRC that they were not qualified to give the sort of specific advice she needed, and they were being made scapegoats.

The conveyancers can only act on the information given to them by the client. If the client misleads them, by design or by accident, they cannot give the correct advice.

Is that an accusation? Heavens, they are coming thick and fast, aren't they? There may have been no 'misleading', simply a misunderstanding of the law. If the company is not qualified they should have said that the case was beyond their remit and referred her to a more specialist company. I'm sure all concerned wish they had done so.

No, it isn't an accusation, it is a fact. Your conveyancer is not a mind reader so unless you tell them what your circumstances are, they cannot advise you correctly. Some people don't give the information because they don't realise that it is relevant which I suspect is what has happened to AR and others do it by design because they don't want to pay the relevant duty.
From experience, conveyancers ask if you have any other property. If you don't think you have because it is in "Trust" then you would probably say, "No." because you don't consider you have. At that point, you don't answer other questions and the Conveyancer calculates the tax. If you say, "Yes." you get asked more questions so your conveyancer can work out whether there is additional tax to pay. At no point did I accuse AR of anything.

OldFrill Fri 05-Sept-25 12:48:38

Allira

OldFrill

eazybee

Apparently local residents are surprised by the value put on the house; the highest similar house in the neighbourhood sold recently at £525,000.

The flat has increased in value by 26% over 7 years. It had previously increased in value by 69% over 8 years. The neighbours are talking nonsense.

Not the flat, the house in Ashton-under-Lyne.

The neighbours who live there might have more idea than someone on a social media forum unless you know precisely where it is.

I don't.

The special adaptations would have increased the house value.

Crossstitchfan Fri 05-Sept-25 12:56:14

Would they? I wouldn’t take on a house that needed adaptations removing.

Sarnia Fri 05-Sept-25 12:57:57

Not my favourite politician but surely in her position she would make sure everything was above board in her political and personal life. She has thrown away her prestigious role as Deputy PM for either not being thorough in her dealings or knowing and hoping to get away with it.

Visgir1 Fri 05-Sept-25 13:04:50

Well now she knows what to correctly do when buying and selling houses. I wonder if she will keep the one in Hove? Doubt it

Primrose53 Fri 05-Sept-25 13:14:03

Primrose53

Petef

At least she seems to have remembered she had a flat in Hove. Jeremy Hunt forgot all about the SEVEN he owned! Still, as people have said, she is the Housing Minister...almost as bad, you'd think, as the Tory Chancellor of the Exchequer "overlooking" that he owed HMRC the thick end of £5 million.

They’re all as bad as each other in my opinion and they all regret their “mistake” or “error” once they are found out.

I have a hunch that she will be pushed into resigning by this time tomorrow because no way will KS sack her because he spoke so highly of her yesterday.

Hate to say, “I told you so.” 🤣🤣🤣 and I wasn’t far out time wise.

Missing you already Ange. 😝

Primrose53 Fri 05-Sept-25 15:42:30

I noticed she says she resigned for her children’s sake. Where were her kids when she was lounging around on the beach at Hove last week? Why would you buy a flat at the other end of the country when your kids are so far away? But doesn’t her on/off boyfriend live down there?

Presumably her grace and favour home will have to go now.

Mollygo Fri 05-Sept-25 15:52:00

Be kind.
She’s just taken on a mortgage and had huge drop in salary.

Allira Fri 05-Sept-25 15:52:53

Oh, yes.
😲

Allira Fri 05-Sept-25 15:57:33

OldFrill

Allira

OldFrill

eazybee

Apparently local residents are surprised by the value put on the house; the highest similar house in the neighbourhood sold recently at £525,000.

The flat has increased in value by 26% over 7 years. It had previously increased in value by 69% over 8 years. The neighbours are talking nonsense.

Not the flat, the house in Ashton-under-Lyne.

The neighbours who live there might have more idea than someone on a social media forum unless you know precisely where it is.

I don't.

The special adaptations would have increased the house value.

Not necessarily.

Our neighbour's house was specially adapted (there are grants for that btw) for a disabled child, no increase in value and the new owners had them removed.

Disabled children under 18 can get a grant without their parents’ income being taken into account. Contact your local council for more information.

FriedGreenTomatoes2 Fri 05-Sept-25 16:38:22

After concluding his investigation, Sir Laurie Magnus, the independent adviser on ministerial interests, said: “It is highly unfortunate [...] that Ms Rayner failed to pay the correct rate of SDLT [stamp duty land tax] on this purchase, particularly given her status and responsibilities as the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government and as deputy prime minister.

“She believed that she relied on the legal advice she had received, but unfortunately did not heed the caution contained within it, which acknowledged that it did not constitute expert tax advice and which suggested that expert advice be sought.”

Iam64 Fri 05-Sept-25 18:56:08

Primrose, Angela raynor’s children are aged 16, 17, 27 . Its possible they weren’t being neglected when when mum was “lounging around on the beach last week”

Iam64 Fri 05-Sept-25 19:29:14

The stress she and her family have been under has been immense. I wonder if she will be able to afford the flat in Hove given her drop in salary,

icanhandthemback Fri 05-Sept-25 20:27:07

As Angela and her ex husband share time with the children, maybe it was her weekend off and her husband was exercising his access to their children. If she chose to go to the beach and enjoy herself, good for her. As for buying a home away from the kids, she bought a house close to her work. She probably knew she wouldn't have a grace and favour home forever. Criticise the woman for not taking further tax advice but why pull her up on her role as a mother.

Iam64 Fri 05-Sept-25 20:42:10

icanhandthemback, we have to accept it’s Open Season on Angela Raynor. I hope she’s ok

icanhandthemback Fri 05-Sept-25 21:00:34

Iam64

icanhandthemback, we have to accept it’s Open Season on Angela Raynor. I hope she’s ok

Me too.

Primrose53 Fri 05-Sept-25 21:49:27

icanhandthemback

As Angela and her ex husband share time with the children, maybe it was her weekend off and her husband was exercising his access to their children. If she chose to go to the beach and enjoy herself, good for her. As for buying a home away from the kids, she bought a house close to her work. She probably knew she wouldn't have a grace and favour home forever. Criticise the woman for not taking further tax advice but why pull her up on her role as a mother.

Because she says that was the main reason she resigned! Trying to cover up the fact that she broke the ministerial code and messed up big time.

I know the ages of her kids by the way.