Angela Rayner dodged a massive ￡40,000 stamp duty bill on her new seaside apartment (Image: Getty)
Angela Rayner dodged a massive ￡40,000 stamp duty bill on her new seaside apartment after telling tax authorities it was her main home, The Telegraph has reported.
The Deputy Prime Minister is understood to have stripped her name from the deeds of her Greater Manchester house just weeks before splashing out ￡800,000 on a plush flat in Hove, East Sussex.
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The cunning manoeuvre allowed Ms Rayner to dodge paying a crushing ￡70,000 stamp duty bill that would have landed if the Hove property was treated as her second home. Instead, she is thought to have stumped up just ￡30,000 in stamp duty - pocketing a whopping ￡40,000 saving in the process. This week there were reports of Labour friendly fire as Rachel Reeves could derail major Angela Rayner plan.
But the Deputy PM has also told Tameside council in Manchester that her constituency house remains her primary residence and informed Brighton and Hove council that her apartment there was a second home for council tax purposes.
While the arrangements are entirely legal, they will spark fierce questions over whether she has deliberately juggled her property affairs to slash her stamp duty and council tax bills.
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A surcharge on stamp duty for second home buyers was brought in by the previous Tory government in 2016, with the rate hiked by current Chancellor Rachel Reeves last October in a brutal move designed to target the wealthy and boost Treasury coffers.
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Is Manchester Rayner's primary residence or not?
At the weekend, sources close to Ms Rayner insisted that her constituency home in Ashton-under-Lyne in Greater Manchester was her "primary residence" for council tax purposes. That designation means she dodges paying council tax on a second home - her grace-and-favour flat in Admiralty House, central London.
She is now facing mounting scrutiny over which of her three homes counts as her primary residence, with the Tories accusing her of breaking electoral law to avoid paying council tax on her grace-and-favour home.
On Thursday, Ms Rayner's spokesman repeatedly refused to reveal how much stamp duty she had paid on the Hove flat but denied any wrongdoing.
A spokesman for Ms Rayner said: "The Deputy Prime Minister paid the correct duty owed on the purchase, entirely properly and in line with all relevant requirements. Any suggestion otherwise is entirely without basis."
Sources said she had followed all advice and complied with longstanding rules at all times, and paid all relevant and required taxes.
The Telegraph investigation shows alterations are being made to the Land Registry on her constituency home in Ashton-under-Lyne, which have not yet been made public. The official register states: "Applications are pending in HM Land Registry, which have not been completed against this title."
The application to vary the ownership is understood to have been made before the purchase of the Hove flat on May 1 this year.
The Palace Pier and the Brighton Seafront (Image: Getty)
What is Rayner's justification
There is a three-year grace period in which second home owners can claim the surcharge back if they sell their first property within that time.
Sources close to Ms Rayner said her living arrangements were a result of her working in multiple locations - both as a constituency MP and as a secretary of state.
They pointed out that she had never owned any property in or near London, which explained why she bought the apartment in Hove. Her partner, Sam Tarry, a former Labour MP, previously lived nearby with his ex-wife.
Sources close to Ms Rayner have acknowledged that she does pay the second homes council tax premium on the Hove flat, the existence of which has led to scrutiny of her living arrangements. She is registered to vote at all three locations - in Ashton, Hove and London.
Ms Rayner has now been accused by the Tories of breaking electoral law to avoid paying council tax on Admiralty House.
Under a convention, the council tax bill for Ms Rayner's flat in Admiralty House is covered by the taxpayer because it is designated as a second home. This arrangement hinges on her claim that her family home in Ashton-under-Lyne is her primary residence.
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There is no requirement that she must own the Ashton-under-Lyne home, where her children stay with her ex-husband Mark Rayner, for it to be designated her main residence. She said in a magazine interview last year that she was in the process of divorcing Mr Rayner.
The Conservatives on Thursday night initiated a legal process to have Ms Rayner struck off the electoral roll in Ashton-under-Lyne on the basis that she does not "meet the legal tests for living there".
If she is removed from the register in her constituency, she could become personally liable for the council tax bill on her grace-and-favour home in London.
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The Tories claim that the electoral registrations are unlawful based on election law and case law. While MPs and students are allowed to have two residences, the party says there is no precedent for someone to have three if they do not actually live at the third.
Under the Representation of the People (England and Wales) Regulations 2001, a local elector can dispute and challenge an entry on the electoral roll.
As the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, Ms Rayner is the minister with responsibility for election law, as well as council tax.
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