Angela Rayner 'dodged £40,000 in stamp duty' as house row over seaside second home deepens
A row over Angela Rayner's latest home purchase continues to deepen following suggestions the Deputy PM 'dodged £40,000 in stamp duty'.
Listen to this article
Recent days have seen fellow cabinet members and political allies defend the Housing Secretary's home purchase, after she shelled out £800,000 on an East Sussex seafront property.
The move led many to accuse the Deputy PM of 'hypocrisy' over the ownership of “three pads".
It follows Ms Rayner's decision to give councils the power to hike tax on second homes, with the purchase joining her property portfolio of two other residences.
The “holiday home” in Hove now sits alongside her three-bedroom flat grace-and-favour flat in central London and her constituency home near Manchester, purchased for £650,000.
Read also: All the properties Angela Rayner lives in
It comes as Stephen Kinnock, Minister of State for Care, defended the Deputy PM, telling Nick Ferrari at Breakfast that Ms Rayner had "done absolutely nothing wrong."
The Deputy Prime Minister, whose Greater Manchester address was previously listed as her primary residence for tax purposes, is thought to have removed her name from the deeds of the house prior to her latest purchase.
Read more: Merseyside’s outgoing top cop blames online agitators for riots after Southport attacks
According to the Telegraph, the Deputy PM is instead alleged to have paid £30,000 in stamp duty, saving her £40,000.
It comes amid claims that despite removing her name from the deeds, Ms Rayner told Tameside council in Manchester that her constituency house remains a primary residence.
Her new Brighton address is considered a second home.
An entirely legal arrangement, the move has led many to question whether the move was an attempt to pay less stamp duty and council tax.
A spokesperson for Angela Rayner said: “The Deputy Prime Minister paid the relevant duty owing on the purchase of the Hove property in line with relevant requirements and entirely properly, any suggestion otherwise is entirely without basis.”
It comes as Stephen Kinnock, Minister of State for Care, insisted "the Deputy Prime Minister has made it absolutely clear she's done absolutely nothing wrong."
"What Angela is saying is that this is not an issue, she has complied with the law."
"I know everything that she's done is fully within the law...I am very clear in terms of what the Deputy Prime Minister's office has said, and what Angela is saying, clearly, is that this is not an issue.
"She has complied with the letter of the law and that is the situation as we find it today."
It comes as the government claims it has fast-tracked the building of 100,000 homes by cutting red tape.
The purchase comes after her Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government gave councils the right to levy an extra 100% on top of council tax for second homes.
Allies told the Telegraph that Rayner's property is liable for the hike and it will be paid in full.
The measure is intended to allow tourist hotspots like Hove to clamp down on sky-high property prices which risk displacing locals in favour of out-of-town residents.
Ms Rayner was spotted enjoying the beach near her new property for the first time last week, drinking a glass of rose wine while in a Dryrobe.
It follows fellow MP Matthew Pennycook branding the current rates of housebuilding "not good enough" with figures of 221,000 homes being built between 2023 and 2024.
Insisting that Labour has been targeting "large scale housing developments" across the country, he insisted the government already had planning permission but various issues had stalled developments.
