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Police have launched an investigation after a property tax row saw Angela Rayner’s seaside home targeted by vandals.
The deputy Prime Minister has come under fire after she admitted yesterday she had mistakenly underpaid stamp duty tax on her £800,000 Hove flat.
The Ashton-under-Lyne MP, who is also the Housing Secretary, has faced calls from the opposition to step down.
Today, graffiti appeared on the wall outside Rayner’s Hove apartment near Brighton, with the words ‘b****’ and ‘tax evader’ daubed on the whitewashed wall.
On the other side of the road, ‘tax evader Rayner’ and ‘Rayner tax avoidance’ were sprayed on a construction wall.
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A Sussex Police spokesperson told Metro: ‘We have been made aware of graffiti outside an address in Hove, on Thursday (4 September).
‘The matter is being treated as criminal damage and we are proactively making enquiries to gather information as to the circumstances.
‘We will be contacting the homeowner to identify and address any further concerns.’
Rayner’s spokesperson said the vandalism is ‘totally unjustifiable and beyond the pale,’ adding that the matter is up to the police now to take action.
The Prime Minister’s spokesman said Sir Keir ‘condemns this vandalism in the strongest possible terms.
‘Whatever scrutiny our parliamentarians may face, it is appalling that their private homes should be targeted in this way,’ he said.
Sir Keir Starmer has not signalled plans to sack her despite the issue being awkward for a Labour government.
Now the top Labour brass have thrown their weight behind Rayner in the face of intensifying criticism and vandalism.
Kemi Badenoch hammered the Prime Minister over the tax controversy, saying if he had ‘any backbone’ he would sack her.
Her party has written to the HMRC and asked for it to launch its own investigation into whether Rayner tried to evade tax. Rayner referred herself the the Prime Minister’s ethics advisor, who oversees ministerial standards, for an investigation.
Reform’s Nigel Farage said before appearing in front of the US Congress Judiciary Committee hearing on free speech that he doesn’t ‘see how Angela Rayner can survive this.’
Chancellor Rachel Reeves said Rayner has her ‘full confidence’ following the ‘mistake.’
She said: ‘I have full confidence in Angela Rayner. She’s a good friend and a colleague she has accepted the right stamp duty wasn’t paid.
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‘That was an error, that was a mistake. She is working hard now to rectify that, in contact with HMRC to make sure that the correct tax is paid.’
Reeves added it was ‘incumbent on all of us to try to properly understand the rules.’
No 10 Downing Street reiterated the Prime Minister’s earlier statements on Rayner, saying she retains Sir Keir’s ‘full confidence.’
However, a Downing Street spokesman refused to commit to her staying in the post for the rest of the Parliament.
The spokesman said: ‘You have the Prime Minister’s words in the House yesterday, he said that she followed the right course of action and expressed his pride in her work as his deputy.’
Bridget Phillipson insisted that Rayner had ‘acted in good faith, sought to act appropriately with the information available to her.’
However, she declined to ‘speculate’ over Rayner’s fate and whether she would still be in the role by Christmas.
Lucy Powell, the House of Commons leader, said the Conservatives’ criticism was ‘because she is so bloody good at her job.’
What have experts said about the tax issue?
It has now emerged that the deputy Prime Minister reportedly sought advice from several different sources on the stamp duty, and none of them is said to have told her she was underpaying on the Hove flat.
A court order relating to Rayner’s disabled son and the family home and the Greater Manchester family home, which was lifted late on Tuesday, reportedly prevented Rayner and the Prime Minister from speaking about the issue in more details before.
Rayner is thought to have received final legal advice from her KC on Wednesday morning, confirming that the previous advice regarding the tax had been inaccurate, prompting her to issue a public statement and refer herself to the ethics advisor.
Jay Sanghrajka, a tax partner at accountants Price Bailey in London, commented on the stamp duty issue swirling around Angela Rayner: ‘What Angela Rayner has done is common tax planning. If she has a second home that she purchases, there is a surcharge of 5% SDLT that is payable (£40,000 being 5% of £800,000).
‘I understand that she has taken her name off at the Land Registry of her house in Manchester. This is in order to show that she has disposed of her “old main residence” and acquired a “new main residence” in Hove. How she has done this would be speculation but she can gift, sell, transfer her previous home to another person or entity.
‘If a person lives in one dwelling, then that dwelling is their main residence but if they have more than one home, then the matter is more complicated. Various factors have to be considered to see which home is their main home. Spending more time in one home does not necessarily make it their main home.
‘A tax case in the 1980s showed various factors to help determine main residence in situations where a person has more than one home. Where does the family spend most of their time, particularly if the person is married or in a civil partnership? If there are children involved, which property do they attend school from? At which address is the individual registered to vote? Where does the person work? How is each residence furnished? Which address do they use for receiving correspondence? Where is the individual registered with a doctor or dentist? At which address is the individual’s vehicle registered and insured? Which property is listed as the main residence for council tax?
‘The main residence for SDLT may not necessarily be the same as the one nominated for capital gains tax purposes.’
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