Angela Rayner insists she did nothing wrong over house sale

Angela Rayner has again denied any wrongdoing as police say they are reassessing a decision not to investigate claims she gave false information on official documents.

The deputy Labour leader is also facing questions about whether she paid the right amount of tax on the 2015 sale of her council house.

She said she had received legal advice that no rules were broken.

And she said she would not be making the tax advice public.

She told BBC Radio 4's Today programme it was "personal" information.

But she added that she would hand it over to the police or HM Revenue and Customs if required.

"I'm happy to comply with the necessary authorities that want to see that," she told Today.

She said she "done absolutely nothing wrong" - and that she would only publish the advice if Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and other senior Tories published details of their tax affairs dating back 15 years.

"If you show me yours, then I'll show you mine," she said.

It comes after Greater Manchester Police said it was reassessing its decision not to investigate allegations she gave false information on official documents, after questions from Conservative Party deputy chairman James Daly.

The question of whether she had broken tax rules on the sale of her council house would be a matter for HM Revenue and Customs, rather than the police.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer publicly backed his deputy, saying: "Angela has my full support and my full confidence today and every day as we work together to take the Labour Party back into government so we can serve the interests of working people."

Levelling up Secretary Michael Gove said while he was personally sure Ms Rayner "has done nothing wrong", there was a "big question over what happened with Angela Rayner's homes".

"The only way that Angela Rayner can resolve ongoing questions is to publish her legal advice and tax details and put an end to the speculation," he said.

"Unless and until she does she will be dogged by this speculation and questions.

"It's in her interest, Labour's interests and country's interest that she levels and answers the really serious questions that have been put to her."

It followed 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.

Questions were then raised about whether the house was her principal residence at the time, a distinction which could have had an impact on how much tax she owed when it was sold.

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.

In September 2010 she married Mark Rayner, who owned a separate house nearby in Lowndes Lane.

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 Mr Rayner.

In March 2015, two months before she became an MP, Ms Rayner sold the Vicarage Road property for £127,500, a gain of £48,500. The couple separated in 2020.

James Daly is the MP for Bury North, while Angela Rayner represents Ashton-Under-Lyne, another Greater Manchester constituency.