Angela Rayner will not publish ‘personal tax advice’ over council house sale – unless Tories do the same
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.”
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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.
Read more:
Rayner pleads for ‘privacy’ after row over house sale
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Reform UK have won the Runcorn and Helsby by-election by just six votes in a blow to Sir Keir Starmer’s premiership.
The narrow victory for new MP Sarah Pochin saw Nigel Farage’s party taking a constituency which Labour won with a majority of almost 14,700 at the general election less than 12 months ago.
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The by-election in the Cheshire seat was called after the previous MP Mike Amesbury resigned following his conviction for punching a constituent.
Ms Pochin won with 12,645 votes, compared to the 12,639 votes secured by Labour candidate Karen Shore, making it the closest by-election result since records began in 1945.
Speaking after the result was declared, Mr Farage told Sky News’ chief political correspondent Jon Craig that “no one knows” what Sir Keir Starmer stands for.
He also blamed Labour’s loss on higher taxes and migration, saying a “sense of fairness bordering on resentment” was noticeable on the doorstep.
He added that the result shows that “if you vote Conservative, you get Labour”, insisting his party is now the opposition to the government.
The vote in Runcorn is Sir Keir Starmer’s first by-election test as prime minister.
A Labour spokesperson said by-elections are “always difficult for the party in government and the events which led to this one being called made it even harder”.
They said: “While Labour has suffered an extremely narrow defeat, the shock is that the Conservative vote has collapsed.
Nigel Farage with Reform’s Runcorn candidate Sarah Pochin
“Moderate voters are clearly appalled by the talk of a Tory-Reform pact.”
Conservative candidate Sean Houlston came in third with 2,341 votes.
The Tories called the result “a damning verdict on Keir Starmer’s leadership which has led to Labour losing a safe seat”.
A spokesperson said: “Just 10 months ago Labour won an enormous majority, including in this seat with 52% of the vote, but their policies have been a punch in the face for the people of Runcorn.
“Snatching Winter Fuel Payments from vulnerable pensioners, pushing farmers to the brink with their vindictive Family Farms Tax and hammering families with a £3500 jobs tax, families are being punished for their disastrous decisions in government. Now we know why Keir Starmer never bothered to visit the area.”
As well as the Runcorn by-election, voters on Thursday took part in contests to elect more than 1,600 councillors across 23 local authorities, along with four regional mayors and two local mayors.
In the first result of the night, Labour held on to the North Tyneside mayoralty by just 444 votes.
It then saw off Reform in the West of England and Doncaster to retain both mayoralties.
However Reform won the mayoralty in Greater Lincolnshire by a majority of 39,584.
Two other mayoralties up grabs are Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, and Hull and East Yorkshire.
Lead politics presenter Sophy Ridge, political editor Beth Rigby, and data and economics editor Ed Conway will be live on Friday morning to report and explain the results.
The US Treasury Department wants to block the Cambodia-based Huione Group from accessing the US banking system, accusing it of helping North Korea’s state-backed Lazarus Group to launder its crypto.
The Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) proposed on May 1 to prohibit US financial institutions from opening or maintaining correspondent or payable-through accounts for or on behalf of the Huione Group.
Huione Group has established itself as the “marketplace of choice for malicious cyber actors” like the Lazarus Group, who have “stolen billions of dollars from everyday Americans,” US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a May 1 statement.
“Today’s proposed action will sever Huione Group’s access to correspondent banking, degrading these groups’ ability to launder their ill-gotten gains.”
Huione Group has set up a network of businesses, which includes payment service platform Huione Pay PLC, the crypto exchange Huione Crypto, and Haowang Guarantee, an online marketplace offering illicit goods and services.
Although the conglomerate doesn’t have correspondent accounts with US financial institutions, it has accounts with foreign firms with US correspondent accounts, FinCEN noted in its rulemaking submission.
The proposed rule is subject to a 30-day public comment period before it can take effect.
Huione expanded into sophisticated cybercrime network
FinCEN claimed that Huione Group has laundered at least $4 billion worth of illicit proceeds between August 2021 and January 2025, including more than $36 million from crypto pig butchering scams.
At least $37 million worth of the crypto laundered has been linked to North Korea’s “cyber heists,” the Treasury said.
Haowang Guarantee has made Huione Group a “one stop shop” for criminals to launder crypto obtained through illicit activities, and ultimately convert it to fiat currency, the Treasury said.
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The conglomerate has also created a US dollar-pegged stablecoin, the US Dollar Huione (USDH), which FinCEN said cannot be frozen and helps to carry out money laundering activities.
The National Bank of Cambodia has stated that payment firms aren’t allowed to deal or trade digital assets in the country and had revoked the company’s local banking license in March.
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The US Securities and Exchange Commission has filed to drop another of its crypto lawsuits, this time its unregistered securities sales case against crypto influencer and YouTuber Ian Balina.
The SEC said in a May 1 joint stipulation with Balina to an Austin federal court that it “believes the dismissal of this case is appropriate,” citing the work of the agency’s Crypto Task Force.
The agency didn’t give a reason for wanting to dismiss its case, but said its decision “does not necessarily reflect the Commission’s position on any other case.”
Balina told Cointelegraph in March that the SEC had informed him it would recommend the court dismiss the case and claimed the agency’s actions were based on a shift in the agency’s priorities.
“Obviously, the new administration is pro-crypto,” Balina said. The SEC has seen a change in leadership under US President Donald Trump, who appointed former crypto lobbyist Paul Atkins to chair the agency.
The joint stipulation argued a dismissal would also conserve the court’s resources “without costs or fees to either party.”
Balina is the CEO of Token Metrics, a crypto influencer with 140,000 followers on X, and a YouTuber whom the SEC accused of improperly promoting crypto projects, particularly during the initial coin offering (ICO) boom circa 2017.
The SEC sued Balina in 2022, alleging that he conducted an unregistered securities offering of Sparkster (SPRK) tokens when he formed an investing pool on Telegram in 2018.
The SEC claimed that US-based investors participated in Balina’s investing pool, using Ether (ETH), which was validated by a network of nodes “which are clustered more densely in the United States than in any other country.”
Related: SEC drops investigation into PayPal’s stablecoin
The court sided with the SEC and, in May 2024, ruled that SPRK was an investment contract under US securities laws, where investors pooled money into a common enterprise expecting profits due to the efforts of others.
Shift in crypto policy
The move is the latest in a long list of crypto-related court actions that the SEC has quashed under the Trump administration’s favorable stance toward the industry.
Over the past month, it has dropped several cases and abandoned multiple investigations against crypto firms, including against Coinbase, Ripple, Kraken, Opensea and PayPal’s stablecoin.
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