Angela Rayner says questions about her tax affairs are ‘a smear’

Angela Rayner has said she is the victim of a “non-story manufactured to try and smear"her over the sale of her council tax home.

The Labour deputy leader was criticised for turning a £48,500 profit on the property in Stockport, Greater Manchester, which she bought in 2007 with a 25 per cent discount.

Speaking in her first TV interview since claims emerged that she may have owed capital gains tax on the 2015 sale, Ms Rayner told BBC Newsnight: “I’ve been very clear there was no rules broken. They [the Conservatives] tried to manufacture a police investigation.”