Angela Rayner resigns as Deputy PM after stamp duty scandal

Angela Rayner tendered her resignation on 5 September. The loss of the Deputy PM is a major blow to Prime Minister Keir Starmer. She is very popular in the Labour Party. The tensions between Rayner and Starmer seem to have decreased since they entered government in 2024.

Starmer was reluctant to see her go. Rayner clung on by her fingernails despite mounting evidence of her lies and tax evasion.

The Commissioner for the Ministerial Code investigated Mrs. Rayner’s conduct. He concluded that she had been honest with him, but he found that she had still underpaid her stamp duty by GBP 40,000. This sum is more than the annual average salary. Even more embarrassingly, Rayner was Secretary of State for Housing as well as being Deputy Prime Minister. She is supposed to know the rules about tax on house purchases! The Commissioner for the Ministerial Code said that Rayner had seriously breached the code and must resign.

The Deputy PM bought a house in Hove valued at GBP 800,000. People who buy properties over a certain value must pay stamp duty: a tax on the legal documents transferring the title. The amount of stamp duty varies according to whether the property being purchased will be the buyer’s main home.

Rayner owns a house in her Ashton-under-Lyne constituency. As Deputy PM, she also received a free flat in Admiralty Arch, London. Therefore, her house in Hove was her third home. Mrs. Rayner had Ashton-under-Lyne as her major domicile for every purpose: her bank accounts were registered there, and her children lived there. But she then took her name off the trust that owned that home. She then stated that Hove would be her major domicile, as this reduced her stamp duty liability. She was also registered to vote at all three addresses.

Mrs. Rayner lied when she said she had paid the correct amount of stamp duty. She also lied when she said her solicitors had advised her that this was the case. She lied in valuing her Ashton-under-Lyne house at GBP 650,000. She lied when she sold her share of the house to the trust for her children by saying this was to benefit them. The GBP 650,000 valuation was to maximise her collateral. It was also just below the threshold for another tax.

Angela Rayner’s salary has dropped from GBP 165,000 per annum to GBP 93,000 as a result of her resignation. She will surely have to sell the house in Hove that she bought only months ago. She must pay the additional GBP 40,000 in stamp duty and a fine of GBP 16,000.

When the Conservatives were in office, Rayner was a Labour attack dog. She savaged the Conservatives over their supposed nefariousness. ‘It is one rule for them and another rule for everyone else,’ she repeatedly said. The Conservative schadenfreude at her downfall is unconcealed.

Mrs. Rayner makes much of her underprivileged upbringing. She did not know her father. Her mother is illiterate and mentally ill. Angela Rayner says she spent much of her life trying to prevent her mother from committing suicide. Rayner left school at 16 without qualifications and gave birth whilst unwed. She said it was very difficult to bring up her baby in such circumstances. This emotive tale has Labour on her side.

Time after time, Rayner exploited her children for political advantage. There was the story about her being a single mother. She also spoke about her second son being blind and mentally handicapped. She said that she had bought the Hove house because of her children, despite them living 300 miles from it. She said she was resigning to protect her children.

Now that Rayner is on the backbenches, she could be a thorn in Starmer’s side. She is no longer bound by collective ministerial responsibility. Whilst in the cabinet, she leaked her leftist tax plan to the media. She was burnishing her credentials with the left of the party.

Starmer has the worst approval ratings of any PM. His days are numbered. He said he will lead Labour into the next election, but few believe it. The next General Election is likely to be in 2028. Rayner was positioning herself to lead Labour and, therefore, be Prime Minister.

Ironically, being on the backbenches might even increase her chances of becoming PM. She is now free to attack Starmer from the left.

Rayner defends her lies, ignorance and failures as sexism and misogyny by those who expose her. She is a left-wing martyr.

Mrs. Rayner’s deceit and tax evasion have gone down badly in the country. Labour is seen as sleazy. It has exposed how rich she is despite her constantly harping on about being working class. With Labour increasing taxes, her evasion is all the more despicable.

Rayner was in charge of house building. She pledged to build 300,000 per annum. The figure achieved was 160,00,0, and it is declining. The United Kingdom’s cement production is at a record low. There are not enough builders either. Her plans to build on the green belt and to expand towns despite local people objecting are unpopular.

It had been speculated that Rayner bought the Hove house to associate herself with the south coast. Her seat in Ashton-under-Lyne is vulnerable to the Reform UK Party. This was the chicken run.

We have not seen the last of Angela Rayner. She is an uneducated person who cannot speak grammatically or master her brief. But she is the darling of the Labour grassroots. She may well be brought back into the cabinet in a few years.