Police have launched an investigation into Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner amid a row over the sale of her council house.
Greater Manchester Police is looking into claims she gave false information about where she was living a decade ago, which she denies.
Ms Rayner insists that controversy over whether she should have paid capital gains tax on the sale has been “manufactured” and has accused the Conservative party of attempting to “smear” her.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said he welcomed the investigation and said that it would allow a “line to be drawn” on the issue.
But he refused three times to say whether or not she should should quit if she is found to have broken the law during an interview with ITV.
“I am fully confident that Angela Rayner has not broken the rules. She will cooperate with the investigation as you would expect,” he said.
Under electoral law voters have to register at their pemanent home and can face penalties for false information.
Police originally said that Ms Rayner would not face an investigation.
However, they agreed to “review the circumstances” last month after the deputy chairman of the Conservative Party, James Daly, made the force aware of neighbours who have contradicted Ms Rayner’s statement that the property, which was separate from her husband’s, was her main home.
In a new statement a GMP spokesperson said it was “investigating whether any offences have been committed”.
The row erupted after a former Tory deputy chairman Lord Ashcroft suggested that Ms Rayner had failed to properly declare her main residence in his book Red Queen? The Unauthorised Biography of Angela Rayner.
This led to claims Ms Rayner may owe capital gains tax on the 2015 sale of her Stockport home, something she has denied.
The Labour MP turned a £48,500 profit on the house, which she bought in 2007 with a 25 per cent discount.
Government guidance says that a tenant can apply to buy their council home through the right-to-buy scheme if it is their “only or main home”.
Her husband was listed at another address around a mile away.
Ms Rayner is also said to have re-registered the births of her two youngest children to the address where her husband resided.
Ms Rayner has insisted that her Vicarage Road home was her “principal property” despite her husband living elsewhere at the time.
At the weekend it was reported that in old tweets Ms Rayner had described his house as “home”.
She has accused Lord Ashcroft of an “unhealthy interest” in her family life and of wanting to “kick down at people like me who graft hard in tough circumstances to get on in life”.
Earlier this week Sir Keir said it would be “inappropriate” for him to see the legal advice Ms Rayner has received on the issue. “I don’t need to see the legal advice: my team has seen it,” he told ITV.
Sir Keir said the investigation would allow a “line to be drawn” on the issue.
He said: “We welcome this investigation because it will allow a line to be drawn in relation to this matter.
“I am fully confident that Angela Rayner has not broken the rules. She will cooperate with the investigation as you would expect and it is really a matter for the police.”
A Labour spokesperson said: “Angela welcomes the chance to set out the facts with the police. We remain completely confident that Angela has complied with the rules at all times and it’s now appropriate to let the police do its work.”
Defence Secretary Grant Shapps accused Ms Rayner, who called for Boris Johnson to quit as prime minister after police launched an investigation into whether he had breached lockdown rules, of “double standards”.
He said: “I think the double standards have been extraordinary, Angela Rayner herself has spent her political career calling people out for exactly the thing she seems to be doing now.
“It’s not acceptable to ignore it and it’s not acceptable for Keir Starmer to say he won’t even read reports into it.
“This is something which is a serious matter, it’s important that it’s looked into properly and I welcome the idea that the police are doing that.”
In January 2022 Ms Rayner posted on X, formerly Twitter: “Boris Johnson’s Downing Street is under police investigation, how on earth can he think he can stay on as Prime Minister?”
