Try as she might to duck questions on her tax affairs, the issue just keeps following Angela Rayner around — literally. On a campaign event today in Teesside, the deputy Labour leader was met by three men in high-vis jackets, one of whom was later identified as local Tory councillor John Coulson who took part in the protest alongside other Conservative councillors. The men were carrying an ominous black banner that read: ‘Angela Rayner Tax Dodger?’ Where Rayner walked around Yarm, her unexpected guests went too. In fact, so hot on Rayner’s tail were the protestors that the shadow levelling up secretary eventually had to leg it out the back of a pub she’d just walked into. Not like Labour to about turn…
The stunt follows weeks of speculation about whether Rayner avoided capital gains tax on her council house and broke electoral law, while the deputy Labour leader has refused to make her tax details public. Only hours before the visit, Tory MP Jill Mortimer had blasted the shadow levelling up secretary as a ‘hypocrite’ and ‘nasty truth twister’ when she revealed Rayner had demanded Mortimer publish her tax details for ‘transparency’ in 2020. And, at the weekend, the Mail on Sunday published a host of photos and social media evidence that shows the deputy Labour leader relaxing at her husband’s property — a different house from the one she told authorities was her main residence.
Sir Keir Starmer has defended his deputy, despite not having seen the legal advice she received on the matter himself — while shadow foreign secretary David Lammy attempted to excuse his colleague on the BBC by accusing her critics of unfairly targeting ‘this northern woman’. Hm. The last time Mr S checked, the north of England has the same laws as the south…
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