12 April 2024 , 13:14
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Greater Manchester Police said it was ‘investigating whether any offences have been committed’
Police are investigating Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner following a row over the sale of her council house.
Greater Manchester Police is looking into claims she may have broken electoral law in the early 2010s.
Ms Rayner has accused the Conservative party of attempting to “smear” her and insisted that controversy over whether she should have paid capital gains tax on the sale is “manufactured”.
Police originally said that Ms Rayner would not face an investigation over claims she gave false information about where she was living to the electoral roll.
However, they agreed to “review the circumstances” last month after the deputy chairman of the Conservative Party, James Daly, made the force aware of neighbours who have contradicted Ms Rayner’s statement that the property, which was separate from her husband’s, was her main home.
In a new statement a GMP spokesperson said: “We’re investigating whether any offences have been committed. This follows a reassessment of the information provided to us by Mr Daly.”
The original investigation began after former Conservative party deputy chairman Lord Ashcroft suggested that Ms Rayner had failed to properly declare her main residence in his book Red Queen? The Unauthorised Biography of Angela Rayner. This led to claims Ms Rayner may owe capital gains tax on the sale of her property, something she has denied.
The controversy centres on the 2015 sale of her Stockport home.
The Labour MP turned a £48,500 profit on the property, which she bought in 2007 with a 25 per cent discount.
Government guidance says that a tenant can apply to buy their council home through the right-to-buy scheme if it is their “only or main home”.
Her husband was listed at another address around a mile away, which had also been bought under the right-to-buy scheme.
Ms Rayner is also said to have re-registered the births of her two youngest children, giving her address as where her husband resided.
Ms Rayner has insisted that her Vicarage Road was her "principal property" despite her husband living elsewhere at the time.
Ms Rayner has accused Lord Ashcroft of an “unhealthy interest” in her family life and of wanting to “kick down at people like me who graft hard in tough circumstances to get on in life”.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer and other shadow cabinet members have also staunchly defended Ms Rayner.
A Labour spokesperson said: “Angela welcomes the chance to set out the facts with the police. We remain completely confident that Angela has complied with the rules at all times and it’s now appropriate to let the police do its work.”