Keir Starmer and Angela Rayner (Image: Getty)
Sir Keir Starmer has been challenged to open an investigation into Angela Rayner’s tax affairs as the row over her housing arrangements escalated today.
Ms Rayner is facing demands to explain her past living arrangements amid claims she may have escaped paying some tax.
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It is also alleged she may have made a false declaration about where she was living on the electoral register, amid confusion about what was her principal residency.
The mother-of-three has repeatedly refused to publish tax advice which she claims exonerates her – and has not shown it to Sir Keir.
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If found guilty she could potentially face a criminal conviction and a fine for a false declaration on the electoral roll.
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Labour’s deputy leader has insisted that for many years her “principal property” was a house in Stockport, where she claimed to live separately from her husband and children for the first five years of her marriage.
But postings made by Ms Rayner on social media during that period show her life with her children and cats at her husband's address.
One of the photos from the property she claims was not her principal residence was even posted with the caption “just got home”
In every case where there is a picture, the backdrop is the husband's house, the Mail on Sunday newspaper reported.
James Daly, deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party, said Ms Rayner still has many questions to answer as he called on Labour to launch a probe.
“Sir Keir Starmer must show some leadership and open a full, transparent and independent investigation into the Rayner scandal,” he said.
“As more evidence that Rayner appears to have lied comes to light, it is increasingly clear that the British people cannot trust Labour’s Deputy Leader. She should stop dismissing and distracting and come clean now.
“If Rayner has lied but Sir Keir Starmer refuses to sack her, it will show yet again that Keir Starmer is just a weak leader whose claim that Labour have changed is rubbish.”
David Lammy, Labour’s shadow foreign secretary, was forced to defend Ms Rayner on Sunday, insisting she had “done nothing wrong”.
He dismissed the renewed focus on her past housing arrangements as “smears” and stressed she had “played by the rules”.
Asked about the reports by Sky News’ Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips, Mr Lammy said his colleague “had and has a blended family”.
“You meet someone, they have children, a previous arrangement. Many families up and down the country live in more than one home,” he added.
“That’s what the photos I saw reflects and it’s consistent with the advice that Angela took in terms of her tax affairs from accountants and from lawyers. I don’t think this is a story.”
He continued to state that Ms Rayner did not need to publish legal advice she had received on the matter.
The Labour frontbencher later suggested the story was an attempt to distract from the May 2 local elections.
Mr Lammy told the BBC’S Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg: “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?
“She shouldn’t be the exception. She hasn’t broken any rules.
“This is because of the May elections and the Tories not wanting to concentrate on their actions.”
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