Angela Rayner refuses to publish legal advice around sale of former council house as claims reassessed by police
ANGELA Rayner today refused growing calls to publish the legal advice around the sale of her former council house.
In a tetchy interview, the deputy Labour leader was grilled about the £45,000 profit she made from the property 15 years ago.
Manchester Police last night also announced they were reassessing its decision not to investigate whether she gave false details on official documents.
Ms Rayner insists she did “nothing wrong” when she did not pay tax on the profit because it was her “main home”.
But neighbours claimed she had really been living in her then husband’s house with her kids and even described herself as the “landlady”.
Urged to come clean by publishing the full advice she received, the Labour deputy today refused four times.
She hit back on the BBC: “I’m confident I’ve done nothing wrong. I don’t need to publish all of my details.”
Ms Rayner was accused of hypocrisy by the presenter who suggested she would not accept such assurances from a Tory MP.
She said she would publish her tax affairs if Conservative ministers did the same – adding: “I’ll show you mine if you show me yours.”
Boss Sir Keir Starmer last week told The Sun’s Never Mind The Ballots show that not even he had seen his no2’s legal advice.
But the party leader has stood by Ms Rayner’s promises of innocence.
The row threatens to overshadow Labour’s local elections launch in the West Midlands today.
Neighbours have questioned her claim that the Vicarage Road house was her “principal residence” and therefore no money was owed to the taxman.
Instead they insist she lived down the road on Lowndes Lane with her then-husband Mark Rayner.
Shadow Minister Lisa Nandy told Times Radio that Labour would “respect the process” of the police.