By Andrew MacAskill
LONDON (Reuters) -British Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner was fighting for her political future on Wednesday after acknowledging she had underpaid property tax owed when she bought an apartment in a southern English seaside resort.
Rayner, who is also Britain’s housing minister, has been under scrutiny for days over her purchase of a flat in Hove, and whether she deliberately avoided paying the correct rate of tax.
In an interview with Sky News, Rayner said she had contacted the tax authority to say there was additional property tax to be paid.
“I’m devastated because I’ve always upheld the rules and always have done,” she said. “I made a mistake based upon the advice that I relied upon that I received at the time.”
Her admission is an embarrassment for the governing Labour Party, which is trailing behind Nigel Farage’s populist Reform UK in opinion polls just a year after Prime Minister Keir Starmer won one of the biggest election victories in modern British history.
Rayner, 45, is sometimes tipped as a potential successor to Starmer, but her political future will now likely rest on the findings of the independent adviser on ministerial standards into whether she has broken the government’s code of conduct.
Rayner’s political opponents have accused her of deliberately trying to avoid paying the higher tax rate on second homes, by relinquishing her stake in her home in her northern England constituency when she bought the new property.
Starmer’s government has faced a series of scandals, with four ministers forced to resign over wrongdoing since the party was elected. He and Rayner were both criticised early in their term for accepting donations of expensive outfits, a practice they ended.
At Prime Minister’s Questions in parliament, Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch said Starmer should fire Rayner.
Starmer responded by saying Rayner had gone “over and above” what ministers would normally be expected to reveal about their property affairs and that he was “very proud” to work with her.
Known for her straight-talking and warm manner, Rayner is an extrovert who is considered one of Labour’s most powerful electoral assets because she can connect with ordinary voters. Her personality is in contrast to Starmer’s reputation as a cautious technocrat leader.
RAYNER BLAMES TAX ADVICE
Rayner said she had put her stake in her constituency home in a trust that she set up in 2020 to manage funds for one of her sons who has life-long disabilities as a result of an injury.
She blamed earlier tax advice and said more recent advice from a senior lawyer had concluded she had underpaid her taxes. She said she had contacted the tax authorities to say she was prepared to pay it.
While top political roles in Britain have often been dominated by men and women hailing from elite schools and universities, Rayner took a less traditional route.
Rayner grew up in public housing and left school at 16 when pregnant. She later cared for older people and then became a union representative before entering politics.
Her acknowledgement about underpaying tax is the second time in recent weeks that a minister has faced scrutiny over their property affairs.
Last month, Starmer’s minister for homelessness resigned after she told her tenants they had to leave and then raised the rent sharply – a practice the government has been trying to stop.
(Reporting by Andrew MacAskillEditing by Elizabeth Piper, Peter Graff and Frances Kerry)
