“Every pound of tax that is not delivered to the exchequer damages our public services,” Angela Rayner said last year as she called for a Conservative cabinet minister to be sacked over his tax affairs.
Similar criticism is now being levelled at the deputy Labour leader over claims that she did not pay capital gains tax when selling her old council house. Police are investigating allegations she broke electoral law when she lived between two homes in the 2010s.
Several statements previously made by Rayner, calling for political opponents to come clean on their finances or publish their tax returns, are being circulated by Conservatives who accuse her of hypocrisy.
Rayner, who is backed by the Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer and the shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves, has insisted that she did nothing wrong when she sold her house in Stockport in 2015 without paying capital gains tax of up to £1,500. However, she has refused to make public the tax advice that she has said proves her innocence.
In 2021 she took aim at Jill Mortimer, a Tory by-election candidate, accusing her of having “more connections with tax havens than she does with Hartlepool”. Rayner wrote to Amanda Milling, the Conservative chairwoman, demanding that Mortimer — who won the by-election and is now the town’s MP — publish her tax return covering time she had spent in the Cayman Islands.
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“Why do people do business in the Cayman Islands? To avoid paying tax,” Rayner said on Twitter as she shared the letter, which said: “It is being reported that your candidate Jill Mortimer spent time living in a tax haven where her former husband worked as a banker. Mrs Mortimer had already admitted she has not ‘spent a lot of time’ in Hartlepool.”
She also asked a series of questions for the Mortimers to answer about their finances. “Did they gain any tax advantage from living there — and did she or he advise others of the tax advantages of setting up or living in the Cayman Islands? In the interests of transparency, will you now publish a full account of Jill Mortimer’s time in the Cayman Islands? Will you also order Jill Mortimer to publish in full her tax returns covering that period?”
On Tuesday, Reeves defended her colleague against claims thatshe was a “tax dodger”, and said Rayner should not be “treated differently” to other colleagues over publishing her tax returns.
Jonathan Gullis, the Tory deputy chairman, tweeted Rayner’s letter on Mortimer on Wednesday morning, adding: “Rachel Reeves (April 2024): Angela Rayner should NOT be ‘treated differently’ to other colleagues regarding publishing her tax returns.
“Angela Rayner (April 2021): ‘In the interests of transparency, will you publish in full her tax returns’. Same old Labour.”
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Sir Simon Clarke, the former cabinet minister, tweeted: “Hypocrisy is the worst of political sins.”
In January last year, Rayner tweeted that Nadhim Zahawi’s “story about his tax affairs doesn’t add up”, adding in a video that his position was untenable. “Every pound of tax that is not delivered to the chancellor and to the exchequer means that it damages our public services,” she said.
Zahawi was sacked shortly afterwards. He apologised for failing to disclose millions of pounds in tax which he claimed had been a “careless, not deliberate” mistake.
This prompted Starmer to pledge that Labour would publish the tax returns of the prime minister, chancellor and deputy prime minister if it won the next general election. He said he would also make public the register of ministerial interests, just like the register of MPs’ interests. The policies were agreed by Starmer, Reeves and Rayner.
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Rayner has also called for Tory MPs to resign after police opened investigations into them. “Boris Johnson’s Downing Street is under police investigation, how on earth can he think he can stay on as prime minister?” she said in January 2022, during the Downing Street parties scandal.
Greater Manchester police is now investigating claims that Rayner gave false information when she lived in a home she had bought in Stockport, rather than with her husband at his property a mile away in the 2010s.
On Friday, the force said it had reassessed the case after a complaint from the Tory MP James Daly. “We’re investigating whether any offences have been committed,” it said.
The Labour Party has not yet commented on the police investigation, but a spokesman said earlier this week: “Angela and her husband mutually decided to maintain their existing residences to reflect their family’s circumstances and they shared childcare responsibilities.
“Angela has always made clear she also spent time at her husband’s property when they had children and got married as he did at hers. They were both perfectly entitled to do so. The house she owned remained her main home.
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“Angela has said that if any tax had been owed, she would have paid it but she has taken expert tax and legal advice, which confirms that no capital gains tax was payable.”
Rayner said on Friday: “I’ve repeatedly said I would welcome the chance to sit down with the appropriate authorities, including the police and HMRC, to set out the facts and draw a line under this matter. I am completely confident I’ve followed the rules at all times.
“I have always said that integrity and accountability are important in politics. That’s why it’s important that this is urgently looked at, independently and without political interference. I make no apologies for having held Conservative ministers to account in the past. Indeed, the public would rightly expect me to do so as a deputy leader of the opposition.
“We have seen the Tory Party use this playbook before – reporting political opponents to the police during election campaigns to distract from their record. I will say as I did before — if I committed a criminal offence, I would of course do the right thing and step down. The British public deserves politicians who know the rules apply to them.
“The questions raised relate to a time before I was an MP and I have set out my family’s circumstances and taken expert tax and legal advice. I look forward to setting out the facts with the relevant authorities at the earliest opportunity.”
