News about Angela Rayner

Amid an ongoing investigation into her past living arrangements, Martin Bowen said his daughter 'flitted' between her former council house - which she sold for a £48,000 profit - and her then-husband's property a mile away. But despite Labour's deputy leader insisting she has legal advice to say she did not owe capital gains tax, Mr Bowen cast doubt on her account by saying he would have accepted that there had been 'an error' had he been in her shoes. Mr Bowen, 68, also confirmed the testimony of Ms Rayner's ex-neighbours in Vicarage Road, Stockport that her brother Darren lived there after her 2010 marriage to Mark Rayner - despite being registered to vote at her husband's house. Knowingly providing false information on an electoral registration form can carry a six-month prison sentence.

Labour Deputy Leader Ms Rayner, 44, who is under police investigation over revelations in The Mail on Sunday about her two-homes living arrangements, had a flirtation with the Lib Dems who were the dominant power on Stockport Council in her local area. They nominated her for two council-appointed school governorships in 2004 and 2005. Documents unearthed by this newspaper show the nominations were in her maiden name Angela Bowen and linked to her address at Vicarage Road - the former council house she says was her principal home until 2015, despite neighbours saying she moved out in 2009. Ms Rayner, who says she welcomes the police probe and denies wrongdoing, rose quickly in Labour after becoming MP for Ashton-under-Lyne, Greater Manchester. In her 2021 party conference speech, she declared: 'Our movement has been a family to me throughout my life.' Police are investigating whether she was living at her husband's home on Lowndes Lane (inset) between 2009 and 2015 and was therefore liable for capital gains tax on the 2015 sale of the Vicarage Road house.

EPHRAIM HARDCASTLE: Harry insists that the US is now his residence but specialist expatriate law firm Blevins Franks warns of the pitfalls: 'HMRC will look for any indication that you see Britain as your homeland and may return one day. Even stating in your will that you wish to be buried in the UK could work against you.' So has Harry stipulated where he will be interred?

Labour shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves has sent a warning shot to Angela Rayner over her planned workers' rights shake-up. The party's deputy leader was told by Ms Reeves that her flagship reforms have 'got to work for businesses' in a sign the proposals could yet be watered down. Ms Rayner has outlined changes to employment rights in her 'New Deal for Working People', which she hopes to enact if Labour wins the general election. Under her plans to strengthen workers' rights, a Labour government would ban zero-hour contracts and end 'fire and rehire' practices. The document also includes proposals to entitle employees to sick pay and parental leave from day one, introduce a 'right to switch off' after leaving the office, and boost workers' rights to flexible working. But business chiefs have swiped at Ms Rayner's plans by warning against excessive regulation that might harm Britain's productivity. Lord Mandelson, a former business secretary and one of the architects of New Labour, has also warned against 'rushing' through the reforms.

Rishi Sunak might have been forgiven for wondering who his allies actually are when even top minister James Cleverly took a pop at the PM's height today. The Home Secretary made a jibe about the stature of the 5ft6in premier as he described how Mr Sunak moved him from being Foreign Secretary to his current job. In a gag-filled address to journalists at Westminster, Mr Cleverly also made reference to the vast wealth of Mr Sunak and his wife Akshata Murty. Recounting events from November, when he was shuffled from the Foreign Office to the Home Office , Mr Cleverly said the PM 'looked me in the eye' during talks in No10. 'He had to stand on his wallet to do so,' the Home Secretary quipped. Mr Cleverly's joke about the PM's height came a day after Labour 's Angela Rayner branded Mr Sunak a 'pint-sized loser' in the House of Commons. During this afternoon's parliamentary lunch, the Home Secretary also swiped at Jeremy Hunt , who he was standing in for after the Chancellor pulled out with little notice. And the Home Secretary also took a lighter view of the latest 'sleaze' row to engulf the Tories , which saw Fylde MP Mark Menzies accused of misusing campaign funds.

Shadow transport secretary Louise Haigh repeatedly dodged on whether costs could go up for travellers, merely saying there were no 'plans' for increases. Meanwhile, the party's policy said a 'resource-led, viable timetable' will need to be introduced - with critics arguing that means fewer trains. The overhaul would see the creation of Great British Railways with private train firms, such as Southern and Avanti West Coast, being brought back into public ownership. Labour claims there will be cost savings from the move. But industry bosses and Tories have warned that taxpayers would be liable for ballooning subsidies or face services being slashed to pay for the programme.

Labour's plan to outlaw zero-hours contracts is a 'blunt tool' that would be unpopular with business as well as many workers, a new study has found. The Resolution Foundation think-tank said three-quarters of employers use 'flexible' contracts - including zero-hours as well as variable-hours and temporary staff - to help manage ups and downs in customer demand. These can help keep costs down, firms argue, reducing prices for consumers.

Rishi Sunak was branded a 'pint-size loser' during Prime Minister questions today but how does the PM actually measure up against other world leaders? Mr Sunak at just 5ft 6in tall has been mercilessly mocked online for years over his height, which is significantly shorter than the average height of a British man, about 5ft 10in. Yet in comparison to other world leaders, he is not significantly shorter than most of them. Oddly enough a large proportion of world leaders are quite short, both French President Emmanuel Macron and Ukrainian war leader Volodymyr Zelensky , match Mr Sunak's height of just 5ft 6in. While German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Russian leader Valdimir Putin are only one inch taller.

At Deputy Prime Minister's Question Time we had a rematch of Russell Harty's TV encounter with Grace Jones. Deputy PM Oliver 'Olive' Dowden, wet as a labrador's nose, flashed his eyes and flapped his elbows with ooh-la-la observations. Meanwhile, the role of the violent, not entirely cogent Grace Jones was sustained by Angela Rayner, property speculator, object of interest to the Manchester constabulary and occasional deputy leader of the Labour party.

The Labour deputy leader lashed out as she faced jibes from Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden and other Tory MPs in the Commons, as they stood in for Mr Sunak and Sir Keir Starmer. Ms Rayner is being investigated by Greater Manchester Police over whether she correctly registered to vote at her main home almost a decade ago, amid claims that she lived elsewhere with her husband. She tackled the subject head-on at the start of DPMQs, using it as a way to attack the government over leasehold reform. But she later went on the offensive with an attack on the PM, who is in Germany holding talks with Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

EXCLUSIVE: Businessman Richard Parker (left) has only recently started renting a flat in Birmingham (right), and neighbours and workmen told the Mail they had never seen him there. His main property is alleged to be the family home he has owned since 2005 (inset), which is in Worcestershire and so outside the boundaries of the West Midlands area he hopes to become mayor of next month. It risks fresh embarrassment for Labour as police investigate the party's deputy leader Angela Rayner over her former housing arrangements.

Happy St George's Day everyone! I can hear some of you thinking: 'Oh, I didn't know it was.' And of course, you could be forgiven for that - because in England, unlike other parts of the union, we do very little to mark our special day. Quite often, those who do celebrate are mocked, belittled or openly scorned for being patriotic and loyal to the flag of St George. If you are lucky today, your town hall may hoist a flag to mark the event, but it's more likely it will not. You may discover that your local authority has made funds available for a number of cultural celebrations over the year, although they're unlikely to involve England's patron saint.

Michael Gove taunted Angela Rayner about the police investigation into her house sale yesterday. The Levelling Up Secretary mocked his opposite number as she took to the despatch box for the first time since the probe into her tax affairs was announced. The deputy Labour leader is being investigated over whether she paid the correct amount of tax on the sale of her right-to-buy home, and completed official documents correctly.

A senior Labour MP insisted last night that Sir Keir Starmer was right to take Angela Rayner at her word that she has done nothing wrong in her property dealings. As a neighbour who has accused Ms Rayner of 'lying' over the affair revealed she had spoken to police, the party's justice spokesman said Sir Keir was right to trust his No 2 because he 'knew her'. Shabana Mahmood said Sir Keir shouldn't look at the legal advice given to Ms Rayner about the sale of her right-to-buy home.

A former Conservative minister who leapt to the defence of Angela Rayner (pictured, right) is secretly working as an adviser to Labour. Nick Boles (left) was lauded by the Left last week after accusing the Tories of 'hypocrisy' for questioning whether Labour's deputy leader is telling the truth about her property dealings. But the Mail can reveal that Mr Boles has been quietly advising Labour on how to implement the party's plans for government.

Sir Keir Starmer is 'absolutely right' to take Angela Rayner at her word over her housing row, a senior Labour MP insisted today. Shabana Mahmood, the shadow justice secretary, defended the Labour leader but dodged questions about why Sir Keir had still not seen his deputy's legal advice. Ms Rayner has faced weeks of scrutiny over the sale of her former council house in Stockport with claims she may not have paid the right amount of tax. It is also alleged she may have made a false declaration about where she was living on the electoral register, amid confusion about what was her principal residence. Sir Keir has staunchly defended Ms Rayner during the weeks-long row and accused critics of 'smearing a working-class woman'. But Ms Mahmood was repeatedly grilled this morning over why the Labour leader had still not seen Ms Rayner's legal and tax advice on her past living arrangements. Tory chairman Richard Holden claimed her struggle to give an answer showed Labour were 'still trying to cover up Starmer's role in the Rayner scandal'.

Senior party figures, who are tracking the BBC's news coverage, contrast wall-to-wall coverage of Tory scandals involving MPs William Wragg (right) and Mark Menzies (left) with that of problems afflicting Labour, such as the Angela Rayner (centre) council house row. They are understood to have raised concerns in particular about the BBC News website, which they say is feeding licence fee payers a 'diet of woke bias' - a view which The Mail on Sunday understands is shared by some senior figures at Broadcasting House. A Tory source said: 'The BBC aren't even pretending to be impartial in their news coverage these days.'

More than two months after The Mail on Sunday first asked questions about her implausible living arrangements, Ms Rayner will face the glare of Prime Minister's Questions on Wednesday. A diary clash for Rishi Sunak means that his deputy, Oliver Dowden, will step into the PM's shoes on lunchtime with convention dictating that Sir Keir is also replaced by his deputy. After a break for lunch, the powerful Treasury Select Committee will grill Jim Harra, chief executive of HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), over his department's recent attempt to shut its customer phoneline. But a source said that MPs would also use the opportunity to ask him about the availability of advice on tax they may owe on a right-to-buy council house that is one of two properties owned by married couples - exactly Ms Rayner's situation.

Sylvia Harrop accused the Labour Deputy Leader of breaking party rules by beginning her campaign to become an MP two months before her rivals in the run-up to the 2015 General Election. At the time, Ms Rayner was bidding to become Labour's candidate for Ashton-under-Lyne, Greater Manchester, and Mrs Harrop was secretary of the constituency Labour Party. 'To my mind, Angela cheated and I was disgusted with the Labour Party so I left,' said Mrs Harrop, a party member for 40 years. 'Angela began campaigning around eight weeks before all of her competitors which gave her an unfair advantage. She broke Labour Party rules which instructed all candidates to start electioneering at the same time.'

Sylvia Hampson, who has previously called Angela Rayner a 'f***ing liar' for insisting that she lived apart from her then husband, which might have enabled her to avoid paying a capital gains tax bill, has confirmed that she was a legal witness to the sale of Ms Rayner's home. Ms Rayner asked Mrs Hampson to sign the document (centre), unearthed by The Mail on Sunday, for what she claimed was her 'principal property' - even though her neighbour lived a mile away, next door to the Labour no. 2's then husband, where she says she wasn't living. Ms Rayner's decision to ask the 83-year-old to sign the document will raise questions about why she didn't call on a neighbour near the house where she says she did live. Mrs Hampson has given evidence to Greater Manchester Police, who are investigating 'multiple allegations' against Ms Rayner, including potential breaches of electoral law, a failure to pay capital gains tax and the false claim of a single-occupancy council-tax discount.

The Conservative donor, whose recent book about the deputy leader has led to questions about her former living arrangements, hit back after Sir Keir's jibe during this week's Prime Minister's Questions. Sir Keir told the Commons on Wednesday: 'We have a billionaire Prime Minister and a billionaire peer, both of whose families have used schemes to avoid millions of pounds of tax, smearing a working-class woman.' Yesterday, Lord Ashcroft said: 'I am shocked that a former director of public prosecutions could abuse parliamentary privilege by accusing me of smearing Angela Rayner over tax allegations. 'If he reads my book, which I would suggest is an essential precursor for offering a critical view about its contents, he will discover that I make no allegations whatsoever about any impropriety on the part of his deputy. I think an apology might be in order.'

Keir Starmer and Angela Rayner put on a show of unity today - as she visited a housing development for the second time in four days. The Labour leader and his deputy lingered chatting together for the cameras as they toured the Nightingale Quarter in Derby (right). Ms Rayner is facing intense scrutiny over her living arrangements nearly a decade ago, and which of two homes she was officially residing in. She was at another housing project near Crawley with Rachel Reeves on Tuesday (left).

Labour's leader insisted yesterday he had 'complete confidence' in his deputy, despite not having seen the legal and tax advice she received in the row over the sale of her former council house that is being investigated by police. His Shadow Cabinet colleague Ed Miliband suggested that asking to check her account would have made it look like he did have concerns. Asked if it would signal more confidence if he looked at the advice, Mr Miliband said: 'I think if he had to say, "well, I need to check this up", I think it could send the opposite signal.'

DAILY MAIL COMMENT: China is not just any country. It is the ultimate surveillance state, obsessively watching its own citizens and aggressively spying on the rest of the world. The Communist regime's plan for global domination involves waging a constant and secret war against the West. It is also the world's largest producer of electric cars. And while it sounds like the plot of some dystopian sci-fi movie, these vehicles might be Beijing's latest intelligence-gathering weapon. As we report today, the Government has asked the National Cyber Security Centre to review urgently how these vehicles could be used for malign purposes.