Angela Rayner refuses four times to say she will publish tax details of house sale
Angela Rayner has refused four times to say she will publish the tax advice she received on the sale of her former council house.
Ms Rayner has come under intense scrutiny in recent months amid claims she failed to pay capital gains tax when she sold her home, a former council property bought under the right-to-buy scheme.
The Labour deputy leader has said she sought independent tax advice on the issue and had been assured that she was not required to pay tax on the sale of the property.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Thursday, she repeatedly refused to publish the advice that she had received when asked four times by presenter Nick Robinson.
It comes following reports that Greater Manchester Police was reviewing its decision not to investigate the deputy Labour leader over claims she may have broken electoral law by failing to properly declare her main residence.
Asked if she would publish her tax details, Ms Rayner said: “I’ve been clear about that and I’ve given that information. What the police have done is they conducted an investigative review following pressure from the Conservative deputy chair and concluded there is no case to answer.
“But since then the Conservatives have made a complaint about the police’s actions in that and the police are reassessing that.
“I am confident that I’ve done absolutely nothing wrong. I’ve been very clear on my advice that I have received.”
Pushed again on whether she would publish, she added that it was “not fair on my family for that information to be out there” and insisted she would provide it to the police and HMRC if required.
Ms Rayner was then quizzed on whether she would expect a Conservative MP to publish their details in the same circumstances. She responded: “I’d love to say that Conservative ministers are going to give me the last 15 years of their personal arrangements and their living costs and their tax returns for that period.”
Asked a fourth time if she would publish the independent advice she had received on the sale of her home, the deputy Labour leader said she would if there was a “level playing field” where Conservative ministers were also required to do so.
“You show me yours and I’ll show you mine,” she said. “If the deputy chairman [James Daly] and Rishi Sunak and Jeremy Hunt want to say I’ll give you the last 15 years of my tax details, I’m happy to disclose all of mine as well at the same time.
“I’m open to that if that’s what they want us to do but, as I’ve said, I will give information over to the necessary authorities because it’s a very clear I’ve not done anything wrong.”
The claims came to light in a book by the former Tory deputy chairman Lord Ashcroft, which suggested that she had failed to properly declare her main residence.
Greater Manchester Police confirmed earlier this month that it had dropped the probe.
But Bury North MP James Daly, deputy chairman of the Conservative Party, has since issued a complaint to Greater Manchester Police asking them to look again at whether Ms Rayner gave the correct information in official documents and to investigate whether she broke electoral rules.
He reportedly complained that officers appeared not to have contacted witnesses or looked at the electoral roll, deeds and other relevant documents.
Ms Rayner owned the property on Vicarage Road, Stockport between 2007 and 2015, and was registered to vote there during this time despite her then-partner Mark Rayner owning a property on nearby Lowndes Lane.
The Vicarage Road property was sold in 2015 for £48,500, and Ms Rayner did not pay capital gains tax on the sale as properties are exempt if they are the seller’s principal home.
But Tory MPs, including Mr Daly, have questioned whether the property was her principal residence during this time.
She has also faced backlash for making a profit on the sale of her council home while also opposing the return of the right-to-buy scheme, which was brought in under Conservative prime minister Margaret Thatcher.
