Angela Rayner denies misleading tax officials

Labour's deputy leader Angela Rayner has defended herself against claims she misled tax officials over her main residence.

Ms Rayner is said to have given different addresses in official documents.

Conservatives have posed a series of questions to her prompted by the findings of an unauthorised biography by Tory Lord Ashcroft.

Ms Rayner insists she has done nothing wrong.

She says she has had expert tax advice, which has "confirmed" her position.

The allegations have sprung from claims made in a book by Lord Ashcroft, a former Conservative Party deputy chairman about Ms Rayner's ex-council house on Vicarage Road in Stockport, Greater Manchester.

Ms Rayner, nee Bowen, bought the semi-detached home in 2007, getting a 25% discount under the Right to Buy scheme introduced by former Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

The Mail on Sunday, which is serialising the book, has reported Ms Rayner was registered as living at Vicarage Road on the electoral roll until she sold the property in 2015.

But she appears to have given two different addresses when she re-registered the births of two of her children in 2010 following her marriage to Mark Rayner.

The other address listed, Lowndes Lane, is where her husband was registered as living, according to the newspaper.

Under tax rules, married couples and civil couples can normally only count one property as their main home at any one time.

This has prompted questions about whether Capital Gains Tax was due on the sale of Ms Rayner's property.

Ms Rayner has said she was not liable because it was her home and the "only one" she owned.

She added that her then husband "already owned his own home independently".

It is alleged that it would not be allowed for Ms Rayner and her then husband to have both avoided Capital Gains Tax when they sold these properties after they married.

A Labour source said that even when the complex rules and conditions relating to married couples were taken into account, that did not change the position that no Capital Gains Tax was payable.

Ms Rayner is understood to have taken expert tax advice on the questions that have been raised, including around the rules relating to married couples, which she believes confirms her position that no Capital Gains Tax was payable.

The MP, who is also Labour's shadow housing secretary, tweeted on Monday to label the allegations "a constant stream of smears from the usual suspects".

She added: "For all the unhealthy interest taken in my family by Lord Ashcroft and his friends, there is no suggestion any rules have been broken."

A spokesman for the Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer batted away questions about the transaction during a briefing with reporters after Prime Minister's Questions on Wednesday.

Asked whether Sir Keir had full confidence in Ms Rayner, the spokesman replied: "Correct. We have full confidence in all of the answers she has given on this."

Tory MP Jacob Young has accused Ms Rayner of "staggering hypocrisy" for wanting to reform Lady Thatcher's flagship policy after "personally benefitting from the Right To Buy discount".

Ms Rayner has said her proposed reforms, which she said "will review the unfair additional market discounts of up to 60% the Tories introduced in 2012", are the right thing to do.