The details of this row, now rumbling on for over a month, are familiar – but the pressure is escalating.
Angela Rayner bought a council house in Vicarage Road, Stockport, under right-to-buy for £79,000 in 2007 and sold it in March 2015, shortly before she became an MP, for £127,500.
In 2010, she married Mark Rayner and they had two children.
If she moved into his home, a mile away in Lowndes Lane – which neighbours say she did, and her own tweets have described it as her “home” – then Vicarage Road was no longer her main residence and she should have paid tax on her £48,500 gain.
She insists she was not liable for it and has taken tax advice which backs that up. Sir Keir Starmer on Monday morning said his team – but not him – had seen that advice, which has not been made public.
Let’s be clear, if she did owe tax, the amount she was liable for is not in the big leagues. With estate agent fees and other exemptions, tax experts estimate it could be just £1,500.
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As Ray McCann, past president of the Chartered Institute of Taxation told me today, it could be nothing if, for example, she improved her home by putting in a new kitchen. We don’t have the full details.
