Starmer accuses Tories of 'chasing a smear' in questioning Angela Rayner's taxes

It comes after the Mail On Sunday newspaper claimed to have fresh evidence the Labour deputy leader did not correctly outline her tax arrangements, ITV News' Political Correspondent Harry Horton reports

Sir Keir Starmer has attempted to discredit questions over whether Angela Rayner paid enough tax on the sale of her house nine years ago, accusing the Conservatives of "chasing a smear" against her.

Fresh questions have arisen over whether Ms Rayner paid the correct amount of tax on the 2015 sale of her ex-council house in Stockport due to confusion over whether it was her principal residency.

The Labour deputy leader has insisted she has “done absolutely nothing wrong” and took legal advice that no rules were broken.

She has said she would present this advice to the police or HMRC but would not publicly release her “personal tax advice”.

It comes after the Mail On Sunday newspaper claimed to have fresh evidence the Labour deputy leader did not correctly outline her tax arrangements, suggesting her ex-council home was not her primary address.

It pointed to social media posts in which she referred to her husband’s house as “home”, while maintaining her council house was her principle residence.

Sir Keir insisted "nobody is interested" in his deputy's tax affairs and "how much time she spent with her husband over 10 years ago".

He said: “Angela Rayner has been asked no end of questions about this. She’s answered them all.

"She said she’s very happy to answer any further questions from the police or from any of the authorities."

Sir Keir said he does not need to see the legal advice Ms Rayner received on her tax arrangements and that the government should instead be focusing on bringing A&E wait times down after it was revealed there was a tenfold rise in patients waiting more than 24 hours for a bed last year.

"It’s not appropriate for me to see it [Ms Rayner's legal advice] but I do know this, that if you’re waiting more than 24 hours for A&E, you’re much more interested in why the government is not absolutely laser-focused on that, which is what they should be, than chasing this smear against Angela Rayner and how much time she spent with her husband over 10 years ago," the Labour leader said.

Shadow Foreign Secretary David Lammy earlier suggested the story was an attempt from the Conservatives to distract voters away from economic issues the country is facing ahead of the May 2 local elections.

The Labour frontbencher insisted the Mail On Sunday's report merely shows his colleague “had and has a blended family”.

“You meet someone, they have children - a previous arrangement. Many families up and down the country live in more than one home,” he told Sky News’ Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips.

“That’s what the photos I saw reflects and it’s consistent with the advice that Angela took in terms of her tax affairs from accountants and from lawyers. I don’t think this is a story.”

Deputy chairman of the Conservative Party James Daly urged Sir Keir to “show some leadership and open a full, transparent and independent investigation” into Ms Rayner’s tax affairs.

“She should stop dismissing and distracting and come clean now,” Mr Daly added.

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