ANGELA Rayner was Labour’s Red Queen whose fiery attacks on Tory sleaze helped topple Boris Johnson’s government.
But in the end it was her own political career that was brought down by scandal.
GettyAngela Rayner has resigned from government and quit as deputy PM after admitting to have underpaid £40,000 in stamp duty when buying her new £800,000 home in Hove[/caption]
Sky NewsShe had referred herself to the government’s independent ethics watchdog after revealing her errors in a teary-eyed interview on Wednesday[/caption]
GettyRayner had blamed her lawyers for giving her bad tax advice – allegations they swiftly denied[/caption]
Angela Rayner quit as Deputy PM and Housing Secretary today over revelations she underpaid stamp duty tax on her new Hove flat by £40,000.
The bombshell scandal emerged after I broke the story that she had bought a new £800,000 flat on the trendy south coast – over 250 miles away from her constituency in Ashton-under-Lyne.
Her team had spent days and days furiously denying that she had dodged her taxes, insisting that every single penny was paid.
Even Sir Keir Starmer was sent out to defend her on the airwaves and accuse her critics of waging a sexist and classist war on his No2.
But then came the screeching U-turns.
On Wednesday morning, a teary-eyed Angela admitted she had underpaid her tax and was referring herself to Parliament’s sleazebuster for judgement.
She blamed her lawyers for giving her bad tax advice – allegations they swiftly denied in a blistering statement accusing Rayner of trying to make them a “scapegoat”.
Then came the damning verdict of Parliament’s ethic’s chief Sir Laurie Magnus who found she had failed to live up to the high standards expected of ministers.
It is a sad end to what – even Angela’s biggest critics will admit – was a dazzling political career.
In many ways Angela Rayner was the perfect Labour politician.
Here was a proper working class politician with the gift of the gab who came from the university of hard knocks – not the stuffy dreaming spires of Oxbridge.
Angela grew up on a council estate in Stockport. Her mother suffered from bipolar disorder, could not read or write fully.
Angela has told a heartbreaking story of how her mum once gave her dog food for dinner because she couldn’t read the labels on the tins.
She left school without any qualifications and was pregnant by 16. Many would have written her off – they would be wrong.
In interview after interview Angela has told how having her baby was the making of her.
The all-consuming love a mum has for her child propelled her to go off and get a job and she began working as a carer.
Within a year this charming and gobby red head had become a trade union rep fighting to keep care home workers’ jobs from being privatised.
From there she flew; becoming a Unison trade union rep and then being elected as the Labour MP for Ashton-under-Lyne in 2015.
Once in Parliament, she quickly became a hugely popular and talked about figure.
Labour MPs wanted to go for a drink in Parliament’s Strangers bar with her.
Journalists queued up to write glowing profiles of this estate girl done good.
Even many Tories were fans. Michael Gove being one.
Angela was a bold dash of colour in a room full of grey men in even greyer suits.
Angela Rayner’s long history of past controversies
By Ryan Sabey, Deputy Political Editor
Angela Rayner’s departure from government is the latest gaffe in her political career since she became an MP back in 2015.
The Deputy Prime Minister has walked away from government over failing to pay the correct amount of stamp duty but it’s not the first time controversy has followed her.
She provoked fury at the Labour party conference back in 2021 when she described the Conservatives as “scum”.
Her comments at a fringe meeting at the annual rally drew criticism from two of her colleagues in the shadow Cabinet Ministers and the Tories.
She went on to defend her language saying they were being made in the “street language” of her northern working-class upbringing.
It also emerged that she received £3,500 in free clothes from Lord Alli while she was in opposition.
She had previously said the donation was accepted for Parliamentary duties but later changed the register to show it was for “work clothes”.
She also used Lord Alli’s New York flat for a personal holiday over the New Year period while in opposition declaring it was worth £1,250.
She was also engulfed into a row over over the sale of her council home and her living arrangements before she became an MP.
Cops in Manchester looked at whether she paid the correct amount of tax when moving and was registered to vote at the right address, She was found not to have committed any criminal offence.
She swiftly rose up the ranks, becoming Jeremy Corbyn’s Education Secretary and then winning the vote to become Keir Starmer’s deputy Labour leader.
Newspaper headlines hailed her as the new John Prescott.
Here was a larger than life Labour deputy who could appeal to the party’s working class heartlands in a way the stuff former human rights lawyer Keir Starmer never could.
Allies suggested she was Labour’s Boris Johnson; a fun and straight talking everywoman who could appeal to the masses.
Many thought she would be leader one day, and perhaps PM. Not bad for a teenage mum with no GCSEs from a Stockport council estate eh.
But all that began to unravel a few weeks ago with the drip drip drip of information revealing the tax scandal behind her new flat in Hove.
First there was the revelation of the new flat.
Angela was quickly dubbed “three pads Rayner”. She was registered for council tax at her family constituency home in Ashton-under-Lyne, then had a grace and favour pad in Whitehall paid for by the taxpayer, and now she has a swanky new seaside pad.
Then it emerged she had failed to pay £40,000 of stamp duty owed.
Then her lawyers shredded her defence – saying she had failed to tell them about all her financial affairs and they had not given her the tax advice she claimed.
It was devastating for a woman who just weeks before had been pictured frolicking on Brighton’s famous stony beach with a giant glass of rose in her hand and a giant smile on her face – clearly enjoying life and the last precious days of summer.
Angela had set high standards for Tory ministers – and failed to live up to them when it was her turn in government.
When The Sun on Sunday revealed Tory ex Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi had said a fine to HMRC for failing to pay all his taxes, she was quick to pounce.
He was a disgrace who should quit or be sacked, she fumed.
And when Boris Johnson’s government was rocked by accusations of partying at No10 in lockdown she also led the attacks.
She savaged Tory corruption and scandal and called for him and others to quit.
Boris once famously described Angela Rayner as a lion at PMQs.
Directing his words at Keir Starmer, he warned: “The more he feeds her, the hungrier she gets”.
Angela was the Labour lion taken down by her own double standards.
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