Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner is at the centre of an ongoing row about her former living arrangements, with the police now investigating whether she broke electoral law.
FactCheck takes a look.
What’s the row about and how much tax could Angela Rayner owe?
Ms Rayner is facing questions over where she was living before she sold her house in Stockport in 2015.
She bought the former council house on Vicarage Road in 2007 under the right-to-buy scheme.
The deputy Labour leader was registered as living at that house on the electoral roll until the sale in 2015. But when she re-registered the births of two of her children in 2010 following her marriage to Mark Rayner, she listed her then-husband’s home on Lowndes Lane.
Which home was her main residence at that time is now the crux of the row.
When it comes to electoral law, it is all about the electoral register – where she was registered to vote and where she lived.
According to electoral law, it is an offence to knowingly provide false information in a voter registration application form.
And when she sold the Vicarage Road property eight years after buying it, Ms Rayner is said to have made a £48,500 profit.
So she’s also faced scrutiny over whether she should have paid capital gains tax on the profits if this property was no longer her main residence.
How much she might owe isn’t clear. Writing in the New Statesman, tax expert Dan Neidle “estimate[s]” the bill would be “no more than £3,500”. Though he also spelled out a few scenarios where Ms Rayner would end up paying no further tax at all.
Why are the police investigating Angela Rayner?
Greater Manchester Police (GMP) initially said in early March that they would not be investigating the electoral fraud allegations, but at the end of the month said they would review the decision following a complaint from the Conservative party deputy chairman, James Daly.
A spokesperson for GMP said on 12 April: “We’re investigating whether any offences have been committed. This follows a reassessment of the information provided to us by Mr Daly.”
Ms Rayner’s former staffer, Matt Finnegan, has now given a statement to GMP claiming to have visited her at the Lowndes Lane property in the summer of 2014 – around the time she became a parliamentary candidate.
He said in the statement, reported by the Sunday Times on 13 April: “There was no doubt in my mind that this was Ms Rayner’s family home, where she lived with her then husband, Mark.”
What has Angela Rayner said?
In a new statement released by Labour on 12 April, after GMP’s decision to investigate, Angela Rayner, said: “I’ve repeatedly said I would welcome the chance to sit down with the appropriate authorities, including the police and HMRC, to set out the facts and draw a line under this matter. I am completely confident I’ve followed the rules at all times.”
She added: “I will say as I did before – if I committed a criminal offence, I would of course do the right thing and step down. The British public deserves politicians who know the rules apply to them.”
But the deputy leader noted: “The questions raised relate to a time before I was an MP and I have set out my family’s circumstances and taken expert tax and legal advice. I look forward to setting out the facts with the relevant authorities at the earliest opportunity.”
(Image Credit: Michael Bowles/Shutterstock)
