EX-LAWYER Sir Keir Starmer should want to study Angela Rayner’s tax affairs, a Cabinet Minister said today.
Welfare Secretary Mel Stride said he was “surprised” the Labour leader had not looked at his deputy’s documents given his former role as director of public prosecutions.
But Sir Keir this morning insisted “nobody is interested” in questions about Ms Rayner’s tax affairs.
The Labour deputy is facing mounting pressure over whether she should have paid capital gains tax on the sale of her former council house in 2015.
She has denied any wrongdoing because it was her primary address and claims to have received tax advice at the time.
But she has refused calls to put the matter to bed by publishing this advice, while Sir Keir is refusing to even look at it despite members of his staff doing so.
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Mr Stride told LBC: “I don't want to get too drawn into the situation here because of course, the overarching problem is you don't really know the facts because she apparently has had some advice which she says completely exonerates her position but is not happy to bring it forward.
“And I suppose that's ultimately a decision for her to take. But what does surprise and slightly confuse me is the fact that Keir Starmer, as a former Director of Public Prosecutions with a fairly forensic inquiring mind, has not seen fit to ask her to show him this advice so he can come to his own conclusion on it.
By JACK ELSOM
ANGELA Rayner must face a full police probe into her council house tax row, a former ethics chief has demanded.
The Labour deputy’s position also came under fire from a leading barrister who said a jury would not buy her story.
Questions rumbled on over whether Ms Rayner should have paid capital gains tax on the profit from the sale of her Stockport property in 2015.
Neighbours dispute her claims it was her main residence - which would have allowed her to avoid the tax - and say she actually lived with her then husband a mile away.
Greater Manchester Police are considering whether to reopen an investigation following concerns she may have also broken electoral law living away from her registered address.
Sir Alistair Graham, ex-chairman of the committee on standards in public life, last night called for a full inquiry.
He told the Mail: “There clearly should be a full police investigation of the allegations.
“And of course if it's found she has breached the law then her political position becomes pretty untenable, particularly as she's continued to deny that she's breached the law in any way.”
Top lawyer Rebecca Butler added that it was “beyond the bounds of credibility” that she was not living with her husband and father of her kids.
She said: “A jury would take a hell of a lot of convincing.”
Ms Rayner continues to deny wrongdoing and says she received tax and legal advice over the sale of the former council home she had bought under the right-to-buy scheme
“So I'm just a bit confused about that. And that if I was Chair of the Committee and I had him before me, that is the question I would be asking first - Well, why are you not sufficiently interested in this, to ask Angela Rayner, to provide you with the details and then you can also reassure us that nothing untoward has happened?”
Meanwhile, Sir Keir told reporters: “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.
“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 – 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 what 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?
He added: "It’s not appropriate for me to see (Ms Rayner’s legal advice) but I do know this, that if you’re waiting more than 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, than chasing this smear against Angela Rayner and how much time she spent with her husband over 10 years ago.”
After weeks of denials, historic pics and tweets show Ms Rayner calling the house she said she did not live in her "home" - along with a slew of selfies from her husband's house.
But she was legally registered to a different house a mile away - and has faced questions over her tax bill and whether she lied on the electoral register, which is a criminal offence.
Since questions were first raised, Ms Rayner has also denied living at her husband's house - where her brother was also legally registered as living.
Hitting back at charges of hypocrisy after Ms Rayner demanded ministers publish their tax details, David Lammy told Sky News there should be different rules for government and opposition.
The shadow foreign secretary even suggested she should dodge scrutiny because she is northern.
He said: "Why do we land on this northern woman who had an arrangement with her husband, a blended family, why do we focus on her and say that she should be the exception?"
The Labour deputy leader has been under pressure to prove she does not owe up to £3,000 capital gains tax from the 2015 sale of her right-to-buy home.
She sold it for £127,500, making a £48,500 profit.
Ms Rayner insists she was not liable for tax on the property as it was her primary residence.
But critics point out she married five years earlier and had been spending time at her husband’s property.
Now dozens of social media posts have emerged that show her with her children and cats at her husband’s house during that period.
One was posted with the caption “just got home”, the Mail on Sunday said.
It said she may face a criminal conviction and fine for a false declaration on the electoral roll and under tax rules.
Ms Rayner says she has tax advice which shows she did nothing wrong, but refused to publish it.
