UK prime minister Keir Starmer has declined to say if he will sack his deputy, Angela Rayner, should an investigation find she broke the ministerial code after she admitted to underpaying tax on a new property.
The prime minister said “of course” he would act on the findings of his independent standards adviser following Ms Rayner’s acknowledgment that she did not pay enough stamp duty on a flat she bought in Hove this year.
But he would not be drawn on whether he would fire his deputy, who is also the housing secretary, if standards adviser Laurie Magnus finds that a breach of ministerial rules took place.
In an interview with the BBC, he said: “There’s a clear procedure. I strengthened that procedure. I am expecting a result pretty quickly.
“I do want it to be comprehensive ... and then of course I will act on whatever the report is that’s put in front of me.”
Ms Rayner has been under mounting pressure in recent weeks after reports emerged she had saved £40,000 (€46,000) in stamp duty on a property purchase in Hove by not paying the higher rate reserved for additional home purchases.
She referred herself to independent adviser Mr Magnus and said she made a “mistake” in paying the standard rate, based on legal advice she received at the time.
Mr Starmer and his cabinet have rallied round the deputy prime minister amid opposition calls for her to resign over the error, with the prime minister and chancellor Rachel Reeves both expressing “full confidence” in her.
Downing Street previously refused to say when Mr Starmer was first made aware of key details that led his deputy to refer herself for an ethics investigation, but the prime minister on Thursday insisted it was only once she received the final legal advice on Wednesday morning.
He was asked on the BBC whether he knew at the time of publicly defending Ms Rayner on Monday that she had sought additional legal advice, which came to the conclusion that she should have paid more tax.
Mr Starmer replied: “I knew on Monday that she’d taken advice previously when she did the conveyance, and she was taking further advice, but the actual advice came through on Wednesday morning.”
It comes as sources close to Ms Rayner said she was given three separate pieces of legal advice before buying an £800,000 flat in Hove at the centre of the row.
They said a conveyancer and two experts in trust law had all suggested the amount of stamp duty she paid on the property was correct and she acted on the advice she was given at the time.
The conveyancer Ms Rayner used to buy the Hove flat was revealed on Thursday to be Verrico and Associates, a small high-street firm based in Herne Bay, Kent.
On Wednesday, she admitted she had made a “mistake” and said she referred herself to the standards adviser after receiving fresh legal advice that she was liable for the extra duty following headlines about the purchase. It is understood that the inquiry could report back as early as Friday.
In a public statement, Ms Rayner said a court-instructed trust was established in 2020 following a settlement with the NHS over a “deeply personal and distressing incident” involving her son.
He was left with lifelong disabilities and to ensure he continued to have stability in the family home in Greater Manchester, she said her family had agreed its interest in that property would be transferred to the trust.
She said she had put her stake in the constituency home in Ashton-under-Lyne into this trust, which a “leading tax counsel” had later told her made her liable to pay the additional stamp duty on her new Hove flat.
Details about the complex arrangements continued to emerge on Thursday, when the Telegraph reported Ms Rayner had sold her remaining stake to the trust for £162,500, which the paper suggested had then been used to buy her new flat.
No 10 said Ms Rayner retained the prime minister’s “full confidence” but declined to commit to her staying in post for the rest of this parliament – an assurance which has previously been given publicly to Ms Reeves and foreign secretary David Lammy amid speculation about their positions.
“I’m not going to go through the cabinet and do that,” a Downing Street spokesperson said on Thursday.
“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.” - PA
