Breaking: Rayner admits she didn’t pay enough tax

Angela Rayner’s career is hanging in the balance after she admitted she did not pay enough stamp duty on her second home.

Daily Telegraph 03/09/25

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The Deputy Prime Minister has referred herself to the ministerial ethics adviser after The Telegraph revealed she had dodged £40,000 worth of tax on her £800,000 property on the south coast.

She told Sky News that she had considered resigning after The Telegraph broke the story last week, but the decision on her future may now be out of her hands.

Sir Keir Starmer cannot sack her from her post as deputy leader of the Labour Party because the position is directly elected by party members, but her role as housing secretary now appears untenable.

She paid £30,000 stamp duty on the house in Hove, East Sussex, by claiming it was her main home, instead of the £70,000 she should have paid because it is her second home.

Mrs Rayner came clean hours after a court order was overturned that had blocked her from disclosing the full details of her financial arrangements.

Speaking to Sky News, Ms Rayner said that reports she had not paid enough tax on her second home in Hove were “accurate”.

She said: “I made a mistake based upon the advice that I relied upon, that I received at the time, and a leading expert has now said that advice was wrong.

“I think hopefully most people can see, if you take, if you rely on advice given to you by lawyers and you follow that process and then you find out that that process is wrong and that advice is wrong, I’m rectifying it at the earliest opportunity.

“People make mistakes, but I conducted myself in trying to do the right thing, and I hope that people can see that.”

She added: “I’ve been in shock, really, because I thought I’d done everything properly, and I relied on the advice that I received and I’m devastated because I’ve always upheld the rules and always have done.” You can read the transcript of her interview in full here.

The court order lifted on Wednesday related to her family and her divorce proceedings in 2023 because she has a son who is classed as vulnerable.

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