OPINION
The Angela Rayner row was never about class (Image: PA)
Angela Rayner twisted and turned all week desperately trying to cling on to her job but it could only ever have ended with her sacking. When you put yourself on the moral high ground it is only ever going to end up with an almighty fall. But it has been astonishing to watch her allies beg for mercy for their pal because she is working class. The ex-Deputy Prime Minister is “authentic” and understands ordinary people, we are told.
Keir Starmer defended her in the Commons by saying he was proud to sit alongside someone who can “come from a working-class background to be Deputy Prime Minister of this country”. Rayner’s “complicated” personal circumstances meant her taxes were too complicated for her to understand. The only reason her tax arrangements are being examined is snobbery, apparently, not the fact she was the Housing Secretary and an enthusiast for higher taxes.
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It’s a great get out of jail card for anyone who is working class and gets in a pickle over their taxes. “Sorry, your honour, I’m working class. I’m only in the dock because of snobbery.”
Tories appearing on the media have been accused of attacking her because she is a northern working class woman and have had to point out they are working class too.
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Rayner has always been fetishised by the middle classes for being a “breath of fresh air” (not if you get caught downstream of her vape cloud), a true voice of the working class.
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It is as though she is an exotic species to be examined and revered when actually around half the country is working class. It just shows how rarified their lives are.
Rayner should be admired for fighting her way to the top from a tough background. Earning money and buying a nice house is to be encouraged and respected. Good on her.
This whole debacle has nothing to do with class. From start to finish it is about hypocrisy. Tax avoidance is legal and perfectly rational. Most people want to minimise their tax bill.
Why spend more than you have to when Starmer is going to blow it on bonkers green initiatives drawn up by Ed Miliband and an ever growing welfare state?
But Rayner is not most people. She has made a career out of raging against those who have done well for themselves.
The DPM demanded Tory Nadhim Zahawi was sacked after he paid a penalty to HMRC over previously unpaid tax while he was chancellor.
She said: “His position is untenable. Rishi Sunak must dismiss him from his Cabinet.”
Rayner said in the Commons: “Why does the Prime Minister need an ethics adviser to tell him Nadhim Zahawi’s conduct is unacceptable?”
She also attacked Jeremy Hunt for saving around ￡100,000 in stamp duty on his purchase of seven flats.
Rayner tweeted: “Jeremy Hunt avoids ￡100,000 stamp duty by exploiting Tory tax loophole&buying flats in bulk.”
She has spent years gleefully waging war on Tories, caught twice calling them scum and taking every opportunity to tear apart her opponents.
Did she ever jump to the defence of working class Conservatives? When shadow chancellor John McDonnell repeated calls Esther McVey to be "lynched" Rayner was silent.
McVey, our fantastic columnist, was a Barnardo’s child who became a Cabinet Minister.
Rayner also threw a small firm under bus as she fought to cling on to power.
Sources close to Ms Rayner said a conveyancer and two experts in trust law had all suggested the amount of stamp duty she paid on the East Sussex property was correct and she acted on the advice she was given at the time.
But the conveyancing firm, Verrico and Associates, said its lawyers “never” gave Ms Rayner tax advice and were being made “scapegoats”.
In a statement, managing director Joanna Verrico said: “We’re not qualified to give advice on trust and tax matters and we advise clients to seek expert advice on these.”
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BBC star Chris Packham sparks outrage as he backs disgraced Angela Rayner
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Angela Rayner quits after ￡40k stamp duty scandal as Labour on the brink
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The founder of the small high street firm, based in Herne Bay, Kent, said it completed her stamp duty return “based on the figures and the information provided by Ms Rayner” adding: “We probably are being made scapegoats for all this, and I have got the arrows stuck in my back to show it.”
Rayner would have been wise to have read former Labour prime minister Tony Blair’s book, where he wrote: “Be mindful when in opposition of making too much of too little when it comes to scandal.
“It can be a boomerang, causing welcome damage on the way out, but inflicting harm on the thrower on the way back.”
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