Rayner’s political future uncertain as ministerial rules breach verdict expected on Friday
Angela Rayner’s political future appeared increasingly uncertain ahead of the expected Friday verdict on whether she broke ministerial standards rules over her tax affairs. It comes as lawyers she said she used for her flat purchase denied having given her tax advice.
Keir Starmer has repeatedly declined to say whether he would sack his deputy, who is also the housing secretary, if his independent ethics watchdog rules against her. The prime minister said he would “of course” act on the findings of Sir Laurie Magnus’s probe after Rayner’s acknowledgment that she failed to pay a £40,000 stamp duty surcharge on a flat she bought in Hove this year.
The advice she received is likely to form a key plank of Magnus’s investigation, after Rayner said she was incorrectly advised that she did not need to pay the higher stamp duty rate reserved for second home purchases.
The independent ethics adviser will assess whether Rayner broke the ministerial rules, which place an “overarching duty on ministers to comply with the law”, “behave in a way that upholds the highest standards of propriety”, and “be as open as possible” with the public.
Starmer told the BBC he would “act on whatever the report is that’s put in front of me”. The Labour leader said it was for the independent adviser to establish the facts around the controversy, “then of course it does fall to me – I completely accept that – to make the decision based on what I see in that report”.
Also today, the Reform UK party conference begins in Marston Green, West Midlands. Nigel Farage is scheduled to address the conference at 4.10pm. Elsewhere, Conservative party leader Kemi Badenoch will visit north-west Essex later this morning.
Trade minister Douglas Alexander is on the morning round for government and deputy Conservative party chair Matt Vickers is on for the Tories. Reform’s chairman, Zia Yusuf, is also on the morning media round today.
In other developments:
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The president of Israel will travel to London next week for a controversially timed trip amid outcry from Labour MPs who have urged Starmer not to meet with the visiting delegation. The arrival of Isaac Herzog is fraught with complication for ministers, with the UK government on the brink of recognising the state of Palestine at the UN general assembly.
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Nadine Dorries has defected to Reform on the eve of its conference, saying the Conservative party “is dead”. The former Tory cabinet minister, a close ally of Boris Johnson when he was prime minister, served as culture secretary until 2022 before resigning a year later when blocked from getting a peerage.
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The Home Office has won a legal decision which means it can attempt to block a move by Palestine Action to have its ban under terror laws overturned. The latest legal twist in the battle between the government and the protest group – now proscribed as a terror organisation – saw the court of appeal rule that Yvette Cooper can challenge the decision to grant a judicial review of the organisation’s proscription that was due to be heard in November.
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Nigel Farage is using a private company to reduce his tax bill on his GB News media appearances and other outside employment in a television star-style arrangement that has in recent years become frowned on by major broadcasters. The Reform UK leader diverts money from his prime-time TV show into his company, which means that he paid only 25% corporation tax on profits, instead of 40% income tax, and could offset some expenses.
Key events
Minister defends prospect of government meeting Israeli president in UK
A minister has defended the prospect of UK government figures meeting Israeli president Isaac Herzog on his visit to Britain next week amid criticism from within Labour ranks.
The PA news agency reports that Douglas Alexander said the UK must engage with Israeli as well as Palestinian authorities as part of its diplomatic push to end the Gaza war.
Speaking to broadcasters on Friday, trade minister Alexander said diplomacy would involve “meeting people with whom you disagree”. He told Sky News:
I’m genuinely not sure in terms of what the schedule is. But I’d make a pretty basic point, first of all, diplomacy involves meeting people with whom you disagree and the British government has very strong views in terms of the present conduct of the government of Israel.
It is right that we are engaging with politicians from across the region, because the suffering is incalculable and it needs to stop.
Alexander said that “in order to get to a path to that two-stage solution, of course you’re going to have to be talking not just to the Palestinians but also to the Israelis”.
The visit comes after prime minister Keir Starmer condemned the “terrible situation” in Gaza this week, and before the UK intends to recognise a Palestinian state later this month.
According to the PA news agency, Downing Street declined to comment when asked about the Israeli president’s trip, saying it would set out any visits “in the normal way”.
Adapting gender ruling into practical steps ‘difficult’ for firms, says watchdog chair
The chair of the watchdog which has provided guidance to the government on transgender people’s use of certain spaces has said it will be “difficult” for service providers to adapt to a ruling “which is quite black and white into practical steps”.
Kishwer Falkner, chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that businesses such as gyms and shopping centres should have been following new rules after a supreme court ruling in April which said the words “woman” and “sex” in the Equality Act 2010 refer to a biological woman and biological sex.
Lady Falkner added:
I think it’s going to be difficult for duty bearers, service providers, to adapt a ruling which is quite black and white into practical steps according to their own circumstances and their own organisation. Which is why we’ve always emphasised they should take their own advice as well as adhering to our code.
The EHRC said it presented its final guidance, a new code of practice, to women and equalities minister Bridget Phillipson on Friday after it was delayed from July.
The guidance will now be considered by ministers and, once approved, the UK government must lay the draft code before parliament for 40 days before it can be brought into force.
Falkner said:
Everybody I speak to, every institution I speak to, says: ‘Can you tell us what we’re supposed to do? That’s wrong … they should have been doing it anyway.
The EHRC said it received more than 50,000 responses to its code of practice consultation.
According to a draft code which was published before the consultation, a birth certificate could be requested by a sports club or hospital if there is “genuine concern” about what biological sex a person is. Elsewhere, the draft code said trans people can be excluded from competitive sport “when necessary for reasons of safety or fair competition”, and gave an example of how some services might be able to adapt to “offer toilets in individual lockable rooms to be used by both sexes”.
Away from the Rayner story for a moment. Former Reform UK chair Zia Yusuf has said the party is actively “preparing for government”.
According to the PA news agency, he told BBC Breakfast:
Nigel [Farage] is preparing for government. We are taking seriously the important work of getting ready for government.
We’re not going to be like Labour, if the British people see fit to elect a Reform government, we will come into power with a plan.
Trade minister says Angela Rayner in politics ‘for the right reasons’
Trade minister Douglas Alexander has indicated that he trusted Angela Rayner and said she was in politics “for the right reasons”.
Asked whether he trusted the deputy prime minister, Alexander told Times Radio:
Listen, I really want to live in a country in which someone with Angela Rayner’s circumstances and background can rise to one of the highest offices in the country.
I have to say I should declare an interest – I really like Angela Rayner. We’re a rather improbable group of friends. We come from very different circumstances … if you look at the challenges that Angela Rayner has overcome, not only do I like and respect her but, yes, I think she’s in politics for the right reasons.
Alexander also reiterated that a “rigorous testing process” would be followed in the investigation into Rayner’s tax affairs as he declined to answer questions about her future.
Alexander told Times Radio:
I think most of your listeners, as they think about it, they think about their own workplace or their own circumstances, they would want due process to be followed. That will be a rigorous testing process.
He added:
The expectation is [Sir Laurie Magnus] works in a very comprehensive but also a pretty expeditious way … it will be for the prime minister, as always, to make judgments in relation to his ministers.
He said he did not know “who said what to whom” but the “right person” to ask those questions and have them answered was Sir Laurie Magnus.
A minister conceded there was “frustration” as the investigation into Angela Rayner’s tax affairs continues and said it would be a “good thing” for the government if the probe concluded quickly.
Trade minister Douglas Alexander told BBC Breakfast:
The real test is not do these issues arise, but how does the government deal with them? We have this strengthened, independent office of ministerial standards. He’s conducting the inquiry. Once that’s concluded, it will go to the prime minister’s desk.
I would just ask your viewers to think, what would they want, in their circumstances, in their workplace, of course, there need to be procedures. There’s frustration while that process is under way, but I think everyone is entitled to due process, and that’s the process that’s under way, but, listen, I get it.
I’m not pretending these are headlines that any of us would choose, least of all Angela Rayner, and that’s why, if the reports are true that this is going to be dealt with relatively quickly, of course, I think that’s basically a good thing, not just for Angela, but for the government as well.
Alexander said Keir Starmer was being “very careful” in an interview in which he refused to say whether he would sack Rayner if she is found to have broken the ministerial code.
Asked about the prime minister’s answers to the BBC on Thursday, Alexander told BBC Breakfast:
I thought if you look at how that interview has been reported in the papers this morning, you get radically different accounts as to what the prime minister was actually saying.
My sense is the prime minister was just being very careful.
He is, of course, a trained lawyer, as well as the prime minister, in not wanting to pre-judge a process that is now under way, but he was equally clear that he is ready to act on the basis of the information that he receives from Sir Laurie Magnus.
Rayner’s political future uncertain as ministerial rules breach verdict expected on Friday
Angela Rayner’s political future appeared increasingly uncertain ahead of the expected Friday verdict on whether she broke ministerial standards rules over her tax affairs. It comes as lawyers she said she used for her flat purchase denied having given her tax advice.
Keir Starmer has repeatedly declined to say whether he would sack his deputy, who is also the housing secretary, if his independent ethics watchdog rules against her. The prime minister said he would “of course” act on the findings of Sir Laurie Magnus’s probe after Rayner’s acknowledgment that she failed to pay a £40,000 stamp duty surcharge on a flat she bought in Hove this year.
The advice she received is likely to form a key plank of Magnus’s investigation, after Rayner said she was incorrectly advised that she did not need to pay the higher stamp duty rate reserved for second home purchases.
The independent ethics adviser will assess whether Rayner broke the ministerial rules, which place an “overarching duty on ministers to comply with the law”, “behave in a way that upholds the highest standards of propriety”, and “be as open as possible” with the public.
Starmer told the BBC he would “act on whatever the report is that’s put in front of me”. The Labour leader said it was for the independent adviser to establish the facts around the controversy, “then of course it does fall to me – I completely accept that – to make the decision based on what I see in that report”.
Also today, the Reform UK party conference begins in Marston Green, West Midlands. Nigel Farage is scheduled to address the conference at 4.10pm. Elsewhere, Conservative party leader Kemi Badenoch will visit north-west Essex later this morning.
Trade minister Douglas Alexander is on the morning round for government and deputy Conservative party chair Matt Vickers is on for the Tories. Reform’s chairman, Zia Yusuf, is also on the morning media round today.
In other developments:
-
The president of Israel will travel to London next week for a controversially timed trip amid outcry from Labour MPs who have urged Starmer not to meet with the visiting delegation. The arrival of Isaac Herzog is fraught with complication for ministers, with the UK government on the brink of recognising the state of Palestine at the UN general assembly.
-
Nadine Dorries has defected to Reform on the eve of its conference, saying the Conservative party “is dead”. The former Tory cabinet minister, a close ally of Boris Johnson when he was prime minister, served as culture secretary until 2022 before resigning a year later when blocked from getting a peerage.
-
The Home Office has won a legal decision which means it can attempt to block a move by Palestine Action to have its ban under terror laws overturned. The latest legal twist in the battle between the government and the protest group – now proscribed as a terror organisation – saw the court of appeal rule that Yvette Cooper can challenge the decision to grant a judicial review of the organisation’s proscription that was due to be heard in November.
-
Nigel Farage is using a private company to reduce his tax bill on his GB News media appearances and other outside employment in a television star-style arrangement that has in recent years become frowned on by major broadcasters. The Reform UK leader diverts money from his prime-time TV show into his company, which means that he paid only 25% corporation tax on profits, instead of 40% income tax, and could offset some expenses.
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