Good Morning Britain hosts Kate Garraway and Ed Balls were left furious after Conservative party chairman Kevin Hollinrake insisted Angela Rayner should resign immediately.
A heated argument broke out on Thursday’s Good Morning Britain when Conservative party chairman Kevin Hollinrake was labelled a ‘hypocrite’ for demanding Angela Rayner’s immediate resignation.
Kate Garraway highlighted that it hadn’t been confirmed that Rayner had ‘dodged’ paying tax and might have received some ‘duff’ advice after she was discovered to have not underpaid when purchasing a second home in May.
Kate was supported by co-host Ed Balls who mentioned Boris Johnson had retained numerous Tory MPs including Priti Patel, who faced bullying accusations, when allegations about Tory Sleaze and misdemeanours made headlines during their tenure.
Hollinrake insisted the Deputy Prime Minister should step down after breaching ‘the letter of the law’ and for her vocal thoughts on tax avoidance by others.
Kate promptly interjected to mention former Tory MP Nadhim Zahawi had underpaid tax by £5million during his time as chancellor, as reported by the Mirror.
Ed Balls and Kate Garraway were forced to step in on Good Morning Britain(Image: ITV)
On Wednesday, Rayner admitted her error and has referred herself to the independent ethics commissioner who will decide whether the avoidance was an unintentional mistake.
However, Hollinrake believes it’s too late as a tense confrontation ensued on GMB. “I think she should resign, I don’t think her position is tenable,” Hollinrake said on Thursday’s morning programme.
He continued: “The situation is she’s deputy prime minister, Housing Secretary and this is a matter that relates to housing. The information is readily available. If you look on the HMRC website it clearly sets out on the first page that trust count in terms of a primary home.”
Hollinrake then went on to say that it had to be considered that both Keir Starmer and Angela Rayner have been “so outspoken in terms of tax avoidance”.
He added: “This goes beyond tax avoidance. Tax avoidance is the lawful mechanism to reduce tax, but this is not lawful,” as he said he “doesn’t see how she can just categorise this as an error.”
Kate then intervened and said the chairman had made numerous accusations but said they were awaiting the independent inquiry. She then went on to reference former Tory MP Nadhim Zahawi who paid millions in tax to settle a dispute.
She also challenged why Angela Rayner was being held to a different standard to which Hollinrake responded: “She’s held herself to a different standard. If this had been a Conservative member today, she would be calling for their resignation.”
Kate, however, was not having any of it and interjected: “You’re now calling for her resignation, you’re saying that she’s unlawful. Does that mean anybody in opposition who accuses anything of a government has to resign even if it turns out it’s been proved that she’s made a mistake? Which she’s admitted and paying the money – you’re now saying she should go automatically?”.
Hollinrake then proceeded to assert that Angela had violated both the “letter of the law” and the “spirit of the law”, having previously taken a moral stance against tax avoidance.
However, Kate intervened once more to emphasise that it hadn’t been proven that she was avoiding tax, she could have simply received poor advice. “And you’re somehow jumping the gun and saying she should go anyway?,” she fumed.
Kevin Hollinrake continued by stating that Angela had confessed to not paying her tax, labelling it as “beyond avoidance”. He then alleged that Rayner had adopted the position “that if you’re guilty of this stuff, you should resign.”
Ed then stepped in to counter, arguing that Hollinrake’s criticism was “rather unusual”. He noted: “Your criticism of her is that she has taken a moral position and therefore she should be judged morally. In the case of Priti Patel, there were allegations of bullying. This was referred to the independent advisor, Sir Alex Allen.
“He published a report which said her approach can be described as bullying in terms of the impact felt by individuals.”
Ed proceeded to explain how former Prime Minister Boris Johnson chose to “ignore” Alex Allen, while Priti Patel remained in her position.
“Are you really saying that Boris Johnson and Priti Patel acted in an amoral way?” Hollinrake insisted that wasn’t the point he was making, as Ed pressed on: “You’re saying Angela Rayner demanded people acted morally.”
Join the Daily Record’s WhatsApp community here and get the latest news sent straight to your messages.