Allegations over Angela Rayner’s living arrangements are just a “smear” being pushed by the Conservatives, the Labour leader has claimed.
Sir Keir Starmer’s deputy has come under the spotlight in recent weeks over the sale of an ex-council house she owned in Stockport, having been accused of avoiding capital gains tax on the property and falsely registering to vote there – claims she has denied.
The allegations centre around whether the property was Ms Rayner’s primary residence, as she has claimed. If it wasn’t, and she was living at her then husband’s address nearby, as alleged in the Mail on Sunday, she would have been liable for capital gains after the sale and could have broken electoral rules.
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Conservative Party chairman Richard Holden has now written to Sir Keir, accusing the pair of failing to “uphold standards in public life” by not answering questions about the allegations, and asking why he had not examined the legal advice Ms Rayner had been given over her actions.
But the Labour leader attacked the Tories for not being “laser focused” on issues impacting voters instead, such as hospital waiting times.
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Speaking to broadcasters from Kings Mill Hospital in Nottinghamshire, Sir Keir 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.”
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He added: “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 [show] 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 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.”
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Asked if he thought his team were not showing him the legal advice to protect him, Sir Keir replied: “No, of course I don’t. They’ve seen the advice. It’s not appropriate for me to see it.
“But I do know this, that if you’re waiting on 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, [instead of] chasing this smear against Angela Rayner and how much time she’s spent with her husband over 10 years ago.”
Over the weekend, the Mail on Sunday claimed to have seen dozens of social media posts from Ms Rayner between 2010 and 2015, which it said showed her now ex’s address was her main property.
In response to the claims, a Labour Party spokesperson said: “Angela and her husband mutually decided to maintain their existing residences to reflect their family’s circumstances and they shared childcare responsibilities.
“Angela has always made clear she also spent time at her husband’s property when they had children and got married. She was perfectly entitled to do so.”
