Angela Rayner has insisted she did “absolutely nothing wrong” when she sold her council house, after Greater Manchester Police announced they were reviewing a decision not to investigate the matter. The deputy Labour leader told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme she was confident she had not broken any rules.
The police are reassessing their earlier decision following a complaint from Conservative MP James Daly about the force’s handling of the case. The Tories have pressed for an investigation into claims that Rayner may have been liable to pay capital gains tax on the sale of the property before she became an MP, allegations raised in a book by former Tory deputy chair Lord Ashcroft.
Rayner said she had received tax advice at the time stating she had followed the proper process, and she was willing to hand this advice over to the police or HMRC but would not make it public. “I don’t need to publish all of my details,” she said, citing the unfairness of putting her family’s information in the public domain.
Rayner argued the claims were politically motivated, noting that the police had initially concluded there was no case to answer. She also said that “Boris Johnson was on to something” with his levelling up agenda, which she and Labour leader Keir Starmer have pledged to revive to address regional inequality.
On workers’ rights, Rayner said she would not slow down planned reforms, including banning zero-hours contracts, despite criticism from former business secretary Peter Mandelson. She stressed the need to rebalance the economy to tackle insecure work and benefit both employees and employers.
