With the news that the report from ethics adviser Sir Laurie Magnus could be handed to the Prime Minister as soon as today Angela Rayner’s future as Deputy Leader of the Labour Party hangs in the balance
Kier Starmer has so far refused to say whether would sack Rayner if she is found to have broken the rules, saying only that he would ‘of course act’ on the report
However reports this morning claim that the Deputy Prime Minister’s lawyers did not give her stamp duty advice when she purchased her £800,000 Hove apartment
The Daily Telegraph reports that Joanna Verrico, the managing director of Verrico & Associates, said the firm “did not and never has given tax or trust advice” and the “stamp duty for the Hove flat was calculated using HMRC’s own online calculator, based on the figures and the information provided by Ms Rayner”
Rayner’s defence is that she received advice from three different professionals ,the conveyancers and two experts in trust law, before then receiving different advice this week about how much stamp duty she should have paid
There is of course a chance that Magnus might clear her of any breach but with questions growing about her account of events, as well as her original “error” in the amount of tax she paid, her political career is hanging by a thread
However a deputy leadership race would be incredibly damaging for the party with one MP telling Newsnight that “We do not need any contest right now, that is the last thing we need,”
