No 10 says Starmer ‘kept updated’ as Rayner got legal briefing on her tax problem, but ‘final advice’ only arrived on Wednesday
Downing Street has said that Angela Rayner only got “final advice” saying that she had underpaid stamp duty on her Hove flat on Wednesday morning.
But it has also said that Keir Starmer was “kept updated” about the steps that she was taking to clarify her position.
It has now emerged that on Friday evening Rayner instructed a KC to review her position in relation to the stamp duty she should have paid when she bought the flat.
On Monday evening Rayner received a draft initial opinion. But that was not the final advice, and the KC asked for further information.
At that point the court order was still in place restricting what Rayner could say about the trust set up for her disabled son (which affected the stamp duty liability), although she could discuss it with her KC. On Tuesday evening that court order was lifted.
And on Wednesday morning Rayner received the final legal opinion saying that she had underpaid her stamp duty. At that point she referred herself to the PM’s ethics adviser, Sir Laurie Magnus.
There have been suggestions that Keir Starmer falsely suggested that Rayner had done nothing wrong when in fact he knew there was a problem.
At the Downing Street lobby briefing this morning the PM’s spokesperson did not accept that. The spokesperson would not say what Rayner was told in in the initial legal opinion on Monday, or at what point Starmer realised she had not paid her full stamp duty liability.
Instead, the spokesperson just said:
The prime minister was kept updated on the steps that the deputy prime minister was taking, as was appropriate, and as soon as that final legal was received by the deputy prime minister on Wednesday morning, she immediately took steps to self-refer herself to the IA [independent adviser], and she updated the prime minister on the legal advice at the earliest opportunity as well.
Starmer has been criticised for telling Radio 5 Live on Monday that those briefing against Rayner were “wrong”. But the spokesperson said that, as the transcript showed, Starmer was making an “overarching point” about how she had seen off people who had briefed against her in the past.
Key events
Swinney sidesteps question about Sturgeon taking non-parliamentary earnings as dividends, not salary, minimising tax
Severin Carrell
Severin Carrell is the Guardian’s Scotland editor.
John Swinney has given a guarded response to questions about Nicola Sturgeon’s tax affairs after it emerged she has taken £30,000 in company dividends, a form of income which side-steps Scotland’s higher rates of income tax.
The former first minister’s register of interests has shown in June she took £20,000 from Nicola Sturgeon Ltd, a firm set up to handle her non-parliamentary earnings, after withdrawing £10,000 earlier this year.
Because they were dividends and not a salary, those payments trigger a tax liability under the UK’s lower rates of tax for dividends of 33.75% rather than the higher “advanced” 45% rate for those earning above £75,001 levied under Scotland’s income tax system.
Sturgeon earns £74,507 as a backbench MSP, just below the advanced rate threshold.
There were estimates she likely legally avoided around £3,600 in income tax, raising questions from opposition parties about her repeated calls for the wealthy to pay more taxes on the grounds of fairness. That money also went to the UK Treasury, rather than the Scottish exchequer.
Pressed by reporters on Thursday whether that honoured the social contract Sturgeon has argued the wealthy should have to fund public services, Swinney did not engage with the fairness question, but said:
I think people obviously have got to take forward their own tax arrangements and to make sure their tax arrangements are compliant with the existing legislative arrangements … I just think people have obviously got to fulfil their tax obligations in all circumstances.
Her register of interests implies she will earn around £300,000 for her recent biography Frankly; she reported her company had received two £75,000 payments from Pan Macmillan, her publishers, and expects two further instalments.
A spokesperson for Sturgeon said: “Nicola will pay all tax due. The money will be subject to both company tax and personal tax.”
Photograph: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images
Tories trying to force out Rayner because she’s ‘bloody good at her job’, Lucy Powell tells MPs
Lucy Powell, the leader of the Commons, told MPs this morning that the Conservatives were trying to force Angela Rayner out of office because she was a “huge asset” to the government.
Speaking during business questions, she said:
[The Tories] have a go at her because she is so bloody good at her job.
Powell also said Rayner had referred herself to the No 10 ethics adviser and “I am not going to say any more on that matter.”
It is understood Angela Rayner is spending the day meeting regional mayors, including West Yorkshire’s Labour Tracy Brabin and the North East’s Kim McGuinness, at Derbyshire stately home Chatsworth House, PA Media reports.
Andy Burnham, the Labour mayor of Greater Manchester, was asked about Angela Rayner in an interview on BBC Radio Manchester this morning. As the BBC reports, he described Rayner as a “friend” and urged people “not to rush judgement”.
He said:
Angela’s life is complicated, she has a trust fund in relation to her son and that clearly makes things complicated when it comes to property.
What I would say is let the ethics adviser take a proper, careful look at it and then come back with an independent judgement.
Swinney tells SNP that Scottish government must stick to legal route to obtaining second independence referendum
Severin Carrell
Severin Carrell is the Guardian’s Scotland editor.
John Swinney is planning to confront activists in the Scottish National party who want him to pursue an aggressive strategy on independence by insisting the Scottish government can only use legal routes to win a fresh referendum.
The first minister told reporters in Edinburgh this morning he believes the only politically legitimate route to a second referendum is for the SNP to win an overall majority in next May’s Holyrood elections, repeating Alex Salmond’s feat in 2011.
He said the agreement by the then UK government and Labour in 2011 that the overall SNP majority constituted a clear mandate had established a clear precedent that could not be rejected again.
He insisted that independence would be central to the party’s election campaign, but said it had to pursue a legal route to a second vote. That meant winning Westminster’s agreement – the UK supreme court ruled unequivocally in 2022 that only the UK government could sanction a referendum. He said:
I think you all know me well enough to know that I’m somebody that deals with the harsh realities of politics and the hard reality [is] that we live within a legal framework, and we have to operate within that legal framework.
And the issue of the constitution is reserved to the United Kingdom parliament. That issue has been tested by the supreme court [so] the route to delivering independence is having a clear expression by the people of Scotland that they want to be independent and that that commands domestic and international legitimacy. And my route does that.
Amid continuing uncertainty amongst his ministerial colleagues about what precisely constitutes a mandate to stage a second vote, frustrated SNP activists are planning to table amendments at the party’s annual conference in October challenging his approach.
They want Swinney to agree to demand independence if a pro-independence parties win a majority of the votes on the regional list in May – an approach which adds votes for pro-independence minority parties such as the Scottish Greens and Alba to SNP support, and declare “independence day” on 1 May 2027.
While ostensibly the only tested route to a referendum, Swinney’s approach is problematic because the SNP needs to substantially increase its vote share by next May to win the 65 seats needed for an overall majority.
Even though support for independence remains at around 50%, the SNP is currently polling at around 34% and voters do not list a second referendum as a top priority.
No 10 says Starmer has ‘full confidence’ in Rayner, but won’t comment on whether PM expects her to keep job until election
At the Downing Street lobby briefing the PM’s spokesperson said that Keir Starmer retains “full confidence” in Angela Rayner. But he would not comment on whether Starmer expected Rayner to remain in post for the rest of this parliament.
Asked about this, the spokesperson said:
I’m not going to go through the cabinet and do that. You have the prime minister’s words in the house yesterday. He said that she followed the right course of action and expressed his pride in her work as his deputy.
It is normal for prime ministers to decline to guarantee that any minister will remain in post for the long term, and Starmer does normally sidestep questions like this. But Starmer has committed to keeping Rachel Reeves as chancellor for the whole of this parliament. And at one point No 10 did say David Lammy would stay as foreign secretary for a full term too.
Starmer condemns vandalism at Rayner’s flat ‘in strongest possible terms’
Downing Street has also condemned the vandalism at Angela Rayner’s flat. (See 11.14am.)
At the lobby briefing the PM’s spokesperson told reporters:
Some of you may have seen the photos of the vandalism of the deputy prime minister’s home this morning.
The prime minister condemns this vandalism in the strongest possible terms.
Whatever scrutiny our parliamentarians may face, it is appalling that their private homes should be targeted in this way.
And a spokesperson for Rayner said:
This vandalism to residents’ homes is totally unjustifiable and beyond the pale.
Neither Angela nor her neighbours deserve to be subjected to harassment and intimidation.
It will rightly be a matter for the police to take action as they deem appropriate.
No 10 says Starmer ‘kept updated’ as Rayner got legal briefing on her tax problem, but ‘final advice’ only arrived on Wednesday
Downing Street has said that Angela Rayner only got “final advice” saying that she had underpaid stamp duty on her Hove flat on Wednesday morning.
But it has also said that Keir Starmer was “kept updated” about the steps that she was taking to clarify her position.
It has now emerged that on Friday evening Rayner instructed a KC to review her position in relation to the stamp duty she should have paid when she bought the flat.
On Monday evening Rayner received a draft initial opinion. But that was not the final advice, and the KC asked for further information.
At that point the court order was still in place restricting what Rayner could say about the trust set up for her disabled son (which affected the stamp duty liability), although she could discuss it with her KC. On Tuesday evening that court order was lifted.
And on Wednesday morning Rayner received the final legal opinion saying that she had underpaid her stamp duty. At that point she referred herself to the PM’s ethics adviser, Sir Laurie Magnus.
There have been suggestions that Keir Starmer falsely suggested that Rayner had done nothing wrong when in fact he knew there was a problem.
At the Downing Street lobby briefing this morning the PM’s spokesperson did not accept that. The spokesperson would not say what Rayner was told in in the initial legal opinion on Monday, or at what point Starmer realised she had not paid her full stamp duty liability.
Instead, the spokesperson just said:
The prime minister was kept updated on the steps that the deputy prime minister was taking, as was appropriate, and as soon as that final legal was received by the deputy prime minister on Wednesday morning, she immediately took steps to self-refer herself to the IA [independent adviser], and she updated the prime minister on the legal advice at the earliest opportunity as well.
Starmer has been criticised for telling Radio 5 Live on Monday that those briefing against Rayner were “wrong”. But the spokesperson said that, as the transcript showed, Starmer was making an “overarching point” about how she had seen off people who had briefed against her in the past.
Kitty Donaldson from the i says Keir Starmer may get the report from his ethics adviser about Angela Rayner tomorrow.
NEW: Senior Government sources are playing down reports ministerial watchdog Sir Laurie Magnus could send Sir Keir Starmer his report into Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner’s tax affairs as soon as today. One Whitehall source said tomorrow is more likely.
Nigel Farage is due to speak at the Reform UK conference at 4.10pm tomorrow. If you were a Labour spin doctor, you might decide that would be a good time to email the lobby with the outcome of the Rayner inquiry.
Britons would rather have Labour government run by Starmer than Reform one led by Farage, poll suggests
Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, got a hostile reception from Democrats on Capitol Hill yesterday when he gave evidence to the House judiciary committee. Later in the day he got a more positive reception from a Republican just down the road.
Tomorrow Farage is speaking at the Reform conference. Here is a guide as to what to expect.
To coincide with the conference, YouGov has published some detailed polling on the party. According to the Politico poll tracker, Reform currently has an average 11-point lead over Labour.
But that does not mean the public is enthusisatic about a Reform government. By two to one, people think a Reform government led by Nigel Farage would do a bad job, not a good job, the poll suggests.
Also, although Reform has a clear lead over Labour in voting intention, this poll suggests there are more people who would prefer a Labour government led by Keir Starmer (43%) than a Reform government led by Farage (37%).
Vandals paint grafitti calling Rayner ‘tax evader’ at and near her flat in Hove
Here are more pictures of the grafitti at Angela Rayner’s flat in Hove, and nearby, calling her a tax evader. (See 10.41am.)
Graffiti calling Angela Rayner a “tax evader” has appeared at her Hove flat, PA Media reports. PA says:
The word “bitch” along with a much larger sign saying “tax evader!” have been pictured on a white wall on the outside of the property.
Across the road, “Tax evader Rayner” and “Rayner tax avoidance” have been graffitied on construction chipboard.
Home Office asks high court to delay hearing that will resolve whether asylum seekers can stay in Bell hotel in Epping
The Home Office has asked the high court to postpone the hearing of Epping Forest district council’s legal action against the owner of the Bell hotel in Epping by six weeks, PA Media reports. PA says:
The council is taking legal action against Somani Hotels over the use of the Essex hotel as accommodation for asylum seekers and had a temporary injunction granted by the high court last month overturned by the court of appeal on Friday.
A full trial of the claim is scheduled for October, after which an injunction could be issued, but barristers for the Home Office asked the court today to push the case back by six weeks to allow the council and Somani Hotels to “reflect on the legal position now established by the court of appeal”.
Edward Brown KC, for the department, said: “There has been a material change of circumstances since the matter was last before this court.
“The court of appeal has set out what the correct position is as a matter of law in relation to the sole planning harm relied upon by Epping (Forest district council), namely the fact of protest.
“There is no need for a speedy trial because there is no interim injunction in place.”
The full trial of claim will decide whether the Bell hotel can continue to be used to house asylum seekers. The widely-publicised court hearings that have already taken place were about whether or not an injunction banning the use of the hotel for asylum seekers should be in place ahead of the full hearing. Originally the high court said migrants should have to move until until the matter was finally resolved, but the court of appeal said they should be allowed to stay until the full trial settles the matter.
Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, was also asked in her Sky News interview if the Rayner controversy showed that the stamp duty regime was “way too complicated”. Reeves sidestepped the question, saying:
Well, look, Angela tried to do the right thing, and of course it is incumbent on all of us to try to properly understand the rules, and she is now working to make sure that the correct tax is paid.
Reeves declines to say when she and Starmer first learned that Rayner had underpaid stamp duty
In her Sky News interview Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, refused to say when she, and the PM, first knew that Angela Rayner had made a mistake with her stamp duty payment.
Asked when she and Keir Starmer first learned about the error, Reeves replied:
Well, the definitive advice came in on Wednesday morning, and that’s when Angela put out the statement.
On Tuesday as well some court injunctions were lifted related to her disabled son and those circumstances, and that’s why Angela was able to make a full statement on Wednesday.
Rachel Reeves says she has ‘full confidence’ in Rayner, and thinks deputy PM can keep her job
In her interviews this morning Bridget Phillipson, the education secretary, would not say whether she expected Angela Rayner to remain in post. Asked on LBC whether she thought that Rayner would still be deputy PM at the end of the year, Phillipson said she did not want to “speculate on or pre-judge” the outcome of the inquiry from the No 10 ethics adviser. She went on:
We’ve got a process that’s under way with the independent adviser. I’m not going to get into hypotheticals or speculate. I’m sorry to disappoint you. I’m just not going to do it. That process will run its course.
But Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, has given an interview to Sky News this morning, and she was willing to back Rayner unequivocally.
Asked if Rayner could stay in post despite the stamp duty mistake, Reeves replied:
Yes, I have full confidence in Angela Rayner. She’s a good friend and a colleague. She has accepted the right stamp duty wasn’t paid. That was an error, that was a mistake. She is working hard now to rectify that, in contact with HMRC, to make sure that the correct tax is paid.
Anyone that saw Angela’s statement yesterday, saw her interview yesterday, I think will have a lot of sympathy with some of the challenging family circumstances around this, around Angela’s disabled son.
But of course, it is right that people pay their right amount of tax, and it’s important that people in public life lead by example. And that’s why Angela has referred herself to the independent adviser on ethics.
Bridget Phillipson was giving interviews this morning to promote the extension of free childcare in England, that took effect this week. There will be a ministerial statement on this in the Commons from Stephen Morgan, the early years minister, at about 11.30am.
Tories demand tax fraud investigation into Angela Rayner
Good morning. Keir Starmer does not want to lose Angela Rayner, and his defence of her in the Commons yesterday was a lot more robust than usual for a PM commenting on a minister who has self-referred to the ethics adviser, but Starmer does not have total control over what is going to happen. Quite a lot of the facts are not in the public domain, and may not be known to Starmer himself (mainly – what exactly was the tax advice Rayner had that led her to think she did not need to pay a higher rate of stamp duty, and how much had Rayner disclosed to these advisers?), and although in theory Starmer can ignore a recommendation from Sir Laurie Magnus, the ethics adviser investigating Rayner, there is a chance Magnus could come up with conclusions that make resignation inevitable.
Here is our overnight story about Rayner’s plight.
Magnus is expected to report soonish – within days, rather than weeks – but until he does the government will be in limbo.
There are various new developments in the story this morning, but none that dramatically alter Rayner’s survival prospects. Here are the key lines.
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Rayner was told on Monday that her original assumption about how much stamp duty she had to pay on the flat she bought in Hove might be wrong. In controversies like this, ‘who knew what, when?’ always becomes a key issue and yesterday Downing Street ducked questions about when Keir Starmer first learned there was a problem. Bridget Phillipson, the education secretary, was giving interviews this morning, and she was more forthcoming about when Rayner was told there was a problem. She told the Today programme:
My understanding is that, whilst Angela Rayner had received some advice on Monday, it was definitively given to her on Wednesday that she had made a mistake in terms of the amount of stamp duty that she had paid on the purchase. So that was on Wednesday. But there were limitations in what she could discuss and disclose, including with others and including in public, until that court order [a court order saying she could not discuss details of the trust set up for her disabled son, which affected her stamp duty liability] had been lifted on Tuesday.
In another interview, on Sky News, Phillipson said that Rayner received the “original version” of this legal advice on Monday, but that it “wasn’t later clarified until the Wednesday”.
Phillipson has not said when Starmer was first told Rayner may have underpaid her stamp duty, but Jason Groves from the Daily Mail thinks the PM would have been alerted to this on Monday. Commenting on the Phillipson inteviews, Groves said:
Given this timeline, it seems very likely that Starmer knew Rayner had failed to pay her taxes in full when he defended her in public on Monday afternoon and said her critics were making ‘a mistake’
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Rayner consulted three people before she concluded that she only needed to pay the standard rate of stamp duty on her flat purchase, not the higher rate for a second home, broadcasters have been briefed. In their BBC story, Billy Kenber and Damian Grammaticas report:
It is understood the deputy prime minister consulted one individual experienced in conveyancing and two experts on the law around trusts before the purchase.
However, it is unclear if any of those people were experts in complex tax law and it is not known if they knew about the full details of the trust, which was set up to help fund care for her son.
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Kevin Hollinrake, the Conservative party chair, has written to HM Revenue and Customs asking it to investigate whether Rayner was guilty of tax evasion. As Sky News reports, Hollinrake said in his letter:
Why did [Rayner], or her representatives, not take the necessary steps to check with HMRC on whether second homes stamp duty was actually payable. This was ‘careless’ at best, and did not meet her requirement to act responsibly.”
There are legitimate questions on whether Ms Rayner could have afforded the property if she had been liable for the additional £40,000 in second homes stamp duty, on top of the £30,0000 standard stamp duty and the £150,000 downpayment towards the Hove flat.
This then raises the question whether the tax evasion was deliberate, to try to get away with minimising her upfront costs so she could afford her £650,000 Natwest mortgage (which is likely to cost in the region £4,000 a month to service).
Hollinrake also says it should have been obvious to Rayner that she did have to pay the higher rate.
There will be more on this as the day goes on. But it won’t just be Rayner. Here is the agenda for the day.
9am: John Swinney, Scotland’s first minister, gives a speech on Scottish independence.
Morning: Keir Starmer participates virtually in a meeting of the “Coalition of the Willing”, the European countries offering to guarantee Ukraine’s security in the event of a ceasefire.
9.30am: Steve Reed, the environment secretary, takes questions in the Commons.
10am: Jeremy Corbyn opens his Gaza Tribunal hearings, exploring British complicity in Israel’s military operations in Gaza.
Morning: Starmer visits a shipyard in Glasgow to promote the benefits to Scotland of the government’s deal with Norway to build warships.
11am: Peter Kyle, the science secretary, speaks at the Universities UK conference.
11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.
Late morning: Members of the Stormont executive hold a press conference to give their response to the racist attacks that have taken place in Northern Ireland over the summer.
Afternoon: John Healey, the defence secretary, holds a press conference in Norway with his Norwegian counterpart after the signing of the warships deal.
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