The verdict from the government’s ethics adviser into whether Angela Rayner broke ministerial code when she underpaid stamp duty is expected on Friday
Angela Rayner’s political future appears increasingly uncertain ahead of a verdict on whether she broke ministerial standards rules over her tax affairs – which could be delivered as early as Friday.
It comes as the lawyers blamed by the deputy prime minister for her stamp duty underpayment denied having given her tax advice, claiming they were being treated as “scapegoats”.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he would act on the findings of independent adviser Sir Laurie Magnus, who has been leading the investigation into Rayner’s tax affairs.
It following Rayner’s acknowledgement that she failed to pay a £40,000 tax surcharge on a flat she bought in Hove this year.
Starmer has so far declined to say whether he would sack his deputy, who is also Housing Secretary, if Sir Laurie rules against her in his report.
The advice Rayner received is likely to form a key plank of Sir Laurie’s investigation, after the deputy PM said she was incorrectly advised that she did not need to pay the higher stamp duty rate reserved for second home purchases.
Sources close to Rayner said a conveyancer and two experts in trust law had all suggested the amount of stamp duty she paid on the East Sussex property was correct and she acted on the advice she was given at the time.
But conveyancing firm, Verrico and Associates, on Thursday said its lawyers “never” gave Rayner tax advice and were being made “scapegoats”.
In a statement, managing director Joanna Verrico said: “We’re not qualified to give advice on trust and tax matters and we advise clients to seek expert advice on these.”
The founder of the small high street firm, based in Herne Bay, Kent, said it completed her stamp duty return “based on the figures and the information provided by Ms Rayner”.
“We believe that we did everything correctly and in good faith. Everything was exactly as it should be. We probably are being made scapegoats for all this, and I have got the arrows stuck in my back to show it.”
Rayner referred herself for an ethics investigation on Wednesday, admitting that she had not paid enough stamp duty on the purchase of the £800,000 flat.
She said she had initially been advised that she was not liable for the second property surcharge because she had sold her stake in her family home in Ashton-under-Lyne to a court-instructed trust established in 2020 to benefit her disabled son.
But she conceded she had made a “mistake” after fresh legal advice from a “leading tax counsel” later revealed that she was liable for the extra duty on her new Hove flat.
Before then, she had insisted for weeks that she had paid the correct amount of tax.
The independent ethics adviser will assess whether Rayner broke the ministerial rules, which place an “overarching duty on ministers to comply with the law”.
They also require ministers to “behave in a way that upholds the highest standards of propriety”, and “be as open as possible” with the public.
Starmer gave his backing to Rayner during Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday, telling MPs he was “very proud to sit alongside” her.
This week Chancellor Rachel Reeves gave Rayner her “full confidence” to remain in post, while Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said she had “sought to be transparent” in scandal over her tax affairs.
On Thursday, graffiti calling the deputy prime minister a “tax evader” appeared at her flat in Hove.
The prime minister condemned the vandalism in the “strongest possible terms”, Downing Street said.
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch repeated her calls for the Prime Minister to sack his deputy, saying the conveyancer’s denial that it advised her on tax “is yet more damning evidence that Angela Rayner has not been honest with the British public”.
Losing the deputy prime minister would cause a headache for Starmer as he seeks to reset his government following a difficult summer dominated by criticism of the small boats crisis and speculation about tax rises in the autumn budget.
Rayner is popular among the Labour grassroots and is said to have played an important role in defusing the backbench revolt over proposed welfare cuts earlier this year.
She is key to his political project, overseeing the manifesto pledge to build 1.5 million new homes as well as the government’s flagship workers’ rights expansion, and is seen as a bridge between Number 10 and the wider party.
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