Angela Rayner has said she will not publish the “personal tax advice” she received on the sale of her council house despite a police development over her living arrangements.
Labour’s deputy leader told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme she was “confident” she had done “absolutely nothing wrong” with regards to the sale of her council house and whether she should have paid capital gains tax on it.
Ms Rayner said she had been “very clear on my advice that I’ve received” – but asked why she would not put that legal advice into the public domain, she said: “Because that’s my personal tax advice. But I’m happy to comply with the necessary authorities that want to see that.”
Sir Keir Starmer later threw his support behind his deputy at the launch of Labour’s local election campaign in Dudley, telling the audience that she had not broken any rules and was right not to publish the legal advice.
Asked if his deputy should resign if found to have done wrong, Sir Keir said: “Angela has answered I don’t know how many questions about this. She has not broken any rules, she has in fact taken legal and tax advice which has satisfied her, and us, and me about the position.”
Although Ms Rayner has resisted putting her tax advice in the public domain, she has committed to hand over the information to the police and HMRC – something Sir Keir agreed with.
When pressed further on why she would not publish the advice – and whether she would accept the same reasoning from a Conservative politician – Ms Rayner suggested she would be willing to do so if her Tory critics did the same.
“If we’re all going to have a level playing field and we suddenly decide that Conservative ministers need to hand over their tax affairs, if you show me yours, then I’ll show you mine,” she said.
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Labour shadow minister defends Rayner
The Labour leader made comparisons with Ms Rayner’s situation to “beergate”, when he and Ms Rayner were investigated, and later cleared, over allegations of breaching COVID lockdown rules ahead of the Hartlepool by-election in May 2021.
He said: “Where does this end? Are you going to be calling for Tory ministers to publish their legal and tax advice going back over the last 15 years? That is where this ends.”
Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove told broadcasters that, while he was sure Ms Rayner had “done nothing wrong”, it was “in her interest to clear this mess up” and release the advice.
The Labour leader’s defence of Ms Rayner came after Greater Manchester Police confirmed it was “reassessing” its initial decision not to investigate allegations made about her living arrangements after receiving a complaint.
The Labour MP has come under the spotlight in recent weeks over the sale of an ex-council house she previously owned in Stockport, having been accused of avoiding capital gains tax – something she has denied.
But she has also faced scrutiny over claims that in 2010, she may have lived primarily at her then husband’s address, despite registering to vote under her own – which could be a breach of electoral rules.
Ms Rayner has said she paid bills and council tax and was registered to vote at the home she brought through Margaret Thatcher’s “right-to-buy” scheme. If it was her primary address, as she has claimed, she would not have had to pay capital gains tax on it when she sold it in 2015 for £127,500 – making a £48,500 profit
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However, there have been claims that despite registering at Vicarage Road, she was primarily living at Lowndes Lane, Mr Rayner’s address.
Greater Manchester Police looked into the claims and initially said there was no evidence of an offence being committed.
However, James Daly, the Tory MP for Bury North who filed the original complaint about Ms Rayner, followed up with the force and said they had failed to properly investigate the allegations – prompting them to reassess their initial decision.
David Sacks, US President Donald Trump’s top adviser on crypto and artificial intelligence, said the administration expects the stablecoin bill to clear the Senate with bipartisan backing.
“We have every expectation now that it’s going to pass,” Sacks told CNBC on May 21, following a key procedural vote that saw 15 Democrats join Republicans to clear the filibuster threshold.
Sacks said the bill could trigger “trillions of dollars” in demand for US Treasurys by unlocking stablecoin growth under clear rules.
“We already have over $200 billion in stablecoins — it’s just unregulated,” he added. “If we provide legal clarity, we create enormous demand for Treasurys practically overnight.”
Stablecoin bill moves forward despite Trump controversy
The stablecoin bill’s progress comes despite controversy surrounding the Trump family’s crypto dealings. Critics have raised concerns that the administration benefits from the legislation, given its ties to World Liberty Financial, a crypto firm backed by Trump family members that recently launched a stablecoin, USD1.
The US Senate voted 66–32 to advance debate on the GENIUS stablecoin bill. Source: US Senate
Sacks, who disclosed the sale of $200 million in crypto-related holdings before joining the White House, declined to comment on whether the president or his family may financially gain from the bill’s passage.
Despite momentum, final passage is not guaranteed. Senator Josh Hawley has added a controversial provision to the bill that would cap credit card late fees, a move that could cost the legislation support from financial industry allies.
In a May 21 post titled “The Empire Lobbies Back,” New York University professor Austin Campbell said the US banking industry is “panicking” over the rise of yield-bearing stablecoins, which threaten their profit model.
Campbell criticized the banking lobby for pressuring lawmakers to defend their interests and block competition from interest-paying stablecoins.
He argued that banks rely on fractional reserve practices to profit while offering low returns to depositors, and fear stablecoins may expose and disrupt that system.
As reported by Cointelegraph, the US Securities and Exchange Commission in February approved the first yield-bearing stablecoin security by Figure Markets.
Sex offenders could face chemical castration and thousands of offenders will be released after serving a third of their jail term, under plans proposed in a sentencing policy review set to be accepted by ministers.
The independent review, led by the former justice secretary David Gauke, was commissioned by the government amid an overcrowding crisis in prisons in England and Wales.
It has made a series of recommendations with the aim of reducing the prison population by 9,800 people by 2028.
The key proposal, which it is understood the government will implement, is a “progression model” – which would see offenders who behave well in jail only serve a third of their term in custody, before being released.
The measure will apply to people serving standard determinate sentences, which is the most common type of jail term, being served by the majority of offenders.
It will be based on sentence length, rather than offence type. That means sex offenders and domestic abusers serving sentences of under four years, could all be eligible for early release.
The policy will mean inmates serve only a third of their sentence in prison, a third on licence in the community, with the remaining portion under no probation supervision at all.
If the offender committed further offences in the “at risk” – or final – stages of their sentence, once out of prison, they would be sent back to jail to serve the remainder of the original sentence, plus time inside jail for the new offence.
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Is government ‘prepared to be unpopular’ over prisons?
Chemical castration trial could be extended
The government will also further the use of medication to suppress the sexual drive of sex offenders, which is currently being piloted in southwest England.
The review recommended that chemical castration “may assist in management of suitable sex offenders both in prison and in the community”.
Ministers are to announce plans for a nationwide rollout, and will first expand the use of the medication to 20 prisons across England.
The justice secretary is also considering whether to make castration mandatory. It’s currently voluntary.
Mr Gauke, the chair of the independent sentencing review, told Sky News that “drugs that reduce sexual desire” will not be “appropriate for every sexual offender”.
“I’m not going to claim it’s the answer for everything,” the former justice secretary said. “This is about reducing the risk of re-offending in future.
“There are some sex offenders who want to reduce their desires and if we can explore this, I think that is something that’s worthwhile.”
However, Mr Gauke stressed that the government needs to focus on “reducing crime overall”.
Image: Prisons in England and Wales are facing an overcrowding crisis. File pic: PA
Domestic abuse commissioner criticises plans
Under his recommendations, violent offenders who are serving sentences of four years or more could be released on licence after spending half of their sentence behind bars. This could be extended if they do not comply with prison rules. These prisoners would then be supervised in the community until 80% of their sentence.
In response to the review, the police have warned: “Out of prison should not mean out of control.”
“If we are going to have fewer people in prison, we need to ensure that we collectively have the resources and powers to manage the risk offenders pose outside of prison,” said Chief Constable Sacha Hatchett at the National Police Chiefs Council.
The domestic abuse commissioner for England and Wales, Nicole Jacobs, said adopting the measures would amount to “watering down” the criminal justice system.
“By adopting these measures the government will be sending a clear message to domestic abusers that they can now offend with little consequence,” she said.
In a set of proposals considered to be the biggest overhaul of sentencing power laws since the 1990s, judges could be given more flexibility to punish lower level offenders with bans on football or driving.
The review has also recommended that short sentences should only be used in “exceptional circumstances”, suggesting they are “associated with higher proven reoffending” and “fall short in providing meaningful rehabilitation to offenders”.
The Howard League for Penal Reform has welcomed the proposals as a “good start”.
“This is a vital review that makes the case for change by focusing on the evidence on what will reduce reoffending and prevent more people becoming victims of crime,” said chief executive Andrea Coomber.
David Gauke’s review has called on the government to “invest” in a probation service that is “under significant strain”, as its proposals recommend a larger number of offenders should be punished and supervised in the community.
“Tagging can be a useful way to monitor offenders and identify escalating risks,” it said.
The government is set to invest a further £700m in the probation service and introduce a mass expansion of tagging technology, where tens of thousands of criminals will be monitored at any one time, creating a “prison outside of a prison”, with the help of US tech companies.
‘Overriding concerns’
The Victims Commissioner, Baroness Newlove, has expressed an “overriding concern” about the ability of an “already stretched probation service” to “withstand the additional pressure” of managing a larger number of people outside of prison.
The policy review also makes recommendations around offenders that are recalled to prison after breaching their licence conditions.
Currently, around 15% of those behind bars are there because they have been recalled. Mostly, it’s for breaching of licence conditions, rather than further offences.
The review recommends a “tighter threshold” for recall so that it is “only used to address consistent non-compliance”, with licence conditions – which can include missing a probation appointment.
Last week the government announced plans that will see offenders serving one to four-year sentences held for a fixed 28-day period if they are returned to jail.
The review suggests increasing that limit to 56 days, in order to “allow sufficient time for planning around appropriate conditions for safe re-release into community supervision”.
The government is expected to accept the review’s key measures, and implement them with a sentencing bill before parliament.
The plans will likely require legislation and only be before the courts by the spring of 2026.
Newly updated guidelines from Dubai’s crypto regulator include provisions on real-world asset (RWA) tokenization and clarify rules for issuers.
On May 19, Dubai’s Virtual Asset Regulatory Authority (VARA) released its updated Rulebook for virtual asset service providers (VASPs) operating in the region. The regulator gave market participants until June 19 to comply with the new rules.
The regulator previously told Cointelegraph that it had enhanced supervisory mechanisms and brought consistency across activity-based rules. One of the more prominent changes includes regulatory clarity on RWA tokens.
Irina Heaver, partner at the United Arab Emirates-based law firm NeosLegal, told Cointelegraph that the updated rules clarify RWA issuance and distribution.
“Issuing real-world asset tokens and listing them on secondary markets is no longer theoretical,” Heaver told Cointelegraph. “It’s now a regulatory reality in Dubai and the broader UAE.”
A “viable” path to realize RWA hype
Heaver compared RWAs to security token offerings (STOs), an earlier attempt from the crypto space to tokenize securities like stocks, bonds and real estate investment trusts. However, the UAE crypto lawyer said that STOs “died a peaceful death in 2018 to 2019.”
The lawyer told Cointelegraph STOs did not work out because of the lack of regulatory clarity, viable secondary market trading venues, institutional investor appetite and liquidity.
Still, the situation is different for RWAs. Heaver told Cointelegraph that RWAs are the next foundational layer for institutional adoption of blockchain and virtual assets. Heaver said that VARA’s new rules already cover them as Asset-Referenced Virtual Assets (ARVA) tokens. She said:
“VARA’s newly updated Virtual Asset Issuance Rulebook (May 2025) addresses these failures head-on. Regulated exchanges and broker-dealers in Dubai are now authorized to distribute and list ARVA tokens.”
The lawyer said this solves an issue in jurisdictions like Switzerland, where token issuance is possible, but listing and secondary trading remain unregulated.
Heaver said ARVA tokens are defined under Dubai law as representing direct or indirect ownership of real-world assets, granting entitlement to receive or share income and purporting to maintain a stable value by reference to real-world assets or income.
ARVA tokens are also backed or collateralised by such real-world assets or constitute a derivative, wrapped, duplicated, or fractionalised version of another ARVA.
The lawyer said issuers must meet specific requirements, including a Category 1 Virtual Asset Issuance license, a comprehensive white paper and a risk disclosure statement.
In addition, issuers must have a paid-up capital of 1.5 million UAE dirhams (about $408,000) or 2% of reserve assets held. The issuers are also subjected to monthly independent audit obligations and must adhere to ongoing supervisory oversight.
“VARA is providing regulatory clarity, and it’s giving the industry a viable, enforceable path to turn the hype of RWA tokenization into reality,” Heaver told Cointelegraph. “This matters because it marks a shift, from theory to execution, from fiction to framework.”