{"id":398036,"date":"2025-09-04T19:29:18","date_gmt":"2025-09-04T19:29:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/398036\/"},"modified":"2025-09-04T19:29:18","modified_gmt":"2025-09-04T19:29:18","slug":"rachel-reeves-declares-confidence-in-angela-rayner-after-stamp-duty-error-angela-rayner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/398036\/","title":{"rendered":"Rachel Reeves declares confidence in Angela Rayner after stamp duty \u2018error\u2019 | Angela Rayner"},"content":{"rendered":"

The chancellor has said she has \u201cfull confidence\u201d in Angela Rayner<\/a> as more details emerged about when the deputy prime minister became aware she had underpaid tax.<\/p>\n

Rayner has referred herself to the government\u2019s independent ethics adviser and HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) after making the admission.<\/p>\n

The leader of the opposition, Kemi Badenoch, has called for Rayner to resign, but Keir Starmer has backed his deputy, telling MPs he was \u201cvery proud to sit alongside\u201d her.<\/p>\n

Rayner said in a statement on Wednesday that when she bought a \u00a3800,000 flat in Hove she took legal advice that suggested she was \u201cliable to pay standard stamp duty\u201d, but had then sought further advice from a leading tax counsel after headlines about the arrangement.<\/p>\n

She learned that the initial advice had been inaccurate and she was liable to pay additional stamp duty. That was because she had put her stake in her constituency home in Ashton-under-Lyne into a trust set up in 2020 for her disabled son.<\/p>\n

It is further understood that Rayner was given three separate pieces of legal advice before buying the property in Hove. Sources said a conveyancer and two experts in trust law had all suggested that the amount of stamp duty she paid on the property was correct and that she acted on the advice she was given at the time.<\/p>\n

Speaking to Sky News, the chancellor, Rachel Reeves<\/a>, said: \u201cI have full confidence in Angela Rayner. She\u2019s a good friend and a colleague. She has accepted the right stamp duty wasn\u2019t paid. That was an error; that was a mistake.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe is working hard now to rectify that, in contact with HMRC, to make sure that the correct tax is paid.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnyone that saw Angela\u2019s statement yesterday, saw her interview yesterday, I think will have a lot of sympathy with some of the challenging family circumstances around this, around Angela\u2019s disabled son.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reeves said Rayner received \u201cdefinitive\u201d advice on Wednesday. Earlier on Sky News, the education secretary, Bridget Phillipson<\/a>, said she received initial advice on Monday \u2013 on the same day the prime minister gave a full-throated defence of his deputy in an interview with Matt Chorley on BBC 5 Live.<\/p>\n

Phillipson told Sky News: \u201cThe deputy prime minister sought advice at the point of purchase of the house, which enacted in line with the advice that she received.<\/p>\n

skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n

Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what\u2019s happening and why it matters<\/p>\n

Privacy Notice: <\/strong>Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com<\/a> to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy<\/a>. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms of Service<\/a> apply.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe then subsequently sought expert advice on that. That original version returned on Monday, but it wasn\u2019t later clarified until the Wednesday, further questions that were addressed through the advice.\u201d<\/p>\n

She added that it was only once a court order preventing discussion of Rayner\u2019s tax affairs was lifted \u201con Tuesday evening\u201d and \u201conce final legal advice [was] returned on Wednesday\u201d that the position could be set out.<\/p>\n

Asked whether the prime minister had known Rayner had underpaid tax on Monday, Phillipson said: \u201cThe deputy prime minister has been clear for some time that she believed she had acted in good faith, that she had paid what was required of her through that house purchase.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt then became clear subsequently that that wasn\u2019t the case, that additional stamp duty was owed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was following new, fresh legal advice, but as I say there were limitations on what could be discussed given the existence of a court order that was there to protect her family and to protect her son.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The chancellor has said she has \u201cfull confidence\u201d in Angela Rayner as more details emerged about when the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":398037,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[13,12,14],"class_list":{"0":"post-398036","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-stories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115147686838597518","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398036","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=398036"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398036\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/398037"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=398036"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=398036"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=398036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}