The U.K.\u2019s deputy prime minister, Angela Rayner, has resigned after an independent inquiry found she did not meet ethical standards over a recent home purchase<\/p>\n
LONDON — The U.K.\u2019s deputy prime minister, Angela Rayner, resigned Friday after an independent inquiry found that she did not meet the ethical standards required for government ministers over a recent home purchase.<\/p>\n
Rayner, who admitted on Wednesday that she did not pay enough tax on her purchase of an apartment in Hove, on England\u2019s south coast, earlier this summer, said the report found that she acted in good faith but that she should have sought more specific tax advice.<\/p>\n
\u201cI take full responsibility for this error,” she said in her resignation letter to Prime Minister Keir Starmer.<\/p>\n
Rayner referred herself to the independent adviser on ministerial standards, Laurie Magnus, on Wednesday, who delivered his report to Starmer on Friday.<\/p>\n
In the U.K., levies are charged on property purchases, with higher charges due on more expensive homes and secondary residences. Reports have suggested that Rayner saved 40,000 pounds by not paying the appropriate levy, known as a stamp duty.<\/p>\n
Rayner, who holds the housing brief in the Labour government and has forged a reputation as one of its most forthright speakers, has often railed against those who deliberately underpay tax, particularly those in the preceding Conservative administration, which Labour replaced in July 2024.<\/p>\n
Starmer said Rayner had made the right decision but said he was \u201cvery sad\u201d to see her leave his government.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have nothing but admiration for you and huge respect for your achievements in politics,\u201d Starmer wrote. The handwritten letter signed off \u201cwith very best wishes and with real sadness.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The U.K.\u2019s deputy prime minister, Angela Rayner, has resigned after an independent inquiry found she did not meet…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":402200,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[138713,3907,748,393,4179,4884,1144,285,712,1523,16,15,1764,263],"class_list":{"0":"post-402199","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uk","8":"category-united-kingdom","9":"tag-138713","10":"tag-article","11":"tag-britain","12":"tag-england","13":"tag-general-news","14":"tag-great-britain","15":"tag-northern-ireland","16":"tag-politics","17":"tag-scotland","18":"tag-taxes","19":"tag-uk","20":"tag-united-kingdom","21":"tag-wales","22":"tag-world-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115156451587665966","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402199","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=402199"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402199\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/402200"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=402199"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=402199"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=402199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}