Tories ‘chasing a smear’ in questioning Angela Rayner’s taxes, says Keir Starmer

Sir Keir defended Ms Rayner and said people were more interested in ‘problems caused by this government’.

Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner says that she has done nothing wrong (Jordan Pettitt/PA) (PA Wire)

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has said the Conservatives are “chasing a smear” in raising questions about deputy leader Angela Rayner’s taxes.

Ms Rayner has faced questions about whether she paid the right amount of tax on the 2015 sale of her ex-council house due to confusion over whether it was her principal residency.

The Labour deputy leader has insisted she has “done absolutely nothing wrong” and took legal advice that no rules were broken.

Angela Rayner has been asked no end of questions about this. She's answered them all. She said she's very happy to answer any further questions from the police or from any of the authorities.

Sir Keir Starmer

She has said she would present this advice to the police or HMRC but would not publicly release her “personal tax advice”.

On Sunday evening, Conservative Party chairman Richard Holden published a letter he has written to Sir Keir where he refers to testimony of residents alleging that Ms Rayner was not living at the property she was registered to on the electoral register.

In the letter, Mr Holden said: “You have pledged to uphold standards in public life but the failure by you and your deputy to answer the simplest questions about this matter makes a mockery of these claims.”

He added: “Given the clear public interest in this case, your unwillingness to investigate this fully so far, or even bother to look at the legal advice Ms Rayner claims to have received, is a damning indictment of your leadership. Surely you recognise this matter is highly corrosive to your own reputation, not just that of your deputy.”

Sir Keir defended Ms Rayner and said people were more interested in “problems caused by this government.”

He said: “Angela Rayner has been asked no end of questions about this. She’s answered them all. She said she’s very happy to answer any further questions from the police or from any of the authorities.

“I don’t need to see the legal advice. My team has seen it. But I will say this, that on the day that the A&E figures, people are waiting more than 24 hours in A&E, we now know that they are 10 times as high as they were five years ago.

“The idea that the Tories want to be focusing on what Angela Rayner, how much time she spent with her ex-husband 10 years ago, I can tell you here at this hospital, nobody but nobody is interested in that. They’re very, very interested in what are you going to do about the A&E problem caused by this government.

Sir Keir added that it was “not appropriate” for him to see Ms Rayner’s legal advice personally.

He added: “But I do know this, that if you’re waiting more than 24 hours for A&E, you’re much more interested in why the government is not absolutely laser focused on that, which is what they should be, than chasing this smear against Angela Rayner and how much time she spent with her husband over 10 years ago.”

Following the Labour leader’s comments, Tory deputy chairman Jack Lopresti said: “Sir Keir Starmer is deliberately trying to avoid dealing with a serious ethics scandal engulfing his deputy because he is too weak to lead.

“It goes to show that for all the bluster, he hasn’t changed the Labour Party at all.

“Angela Rayner has clearly not been telling the truth about where she lived – Sir Keir must order an independent inquiry to get to the bottom of the matter.”