Angela Rayner’s admission that she failed to pay the right amount of stamp duty has divided Independent readers – with some calling for her resignation and others blaming poor legal advice.
Many felt the deputy prime minister was misled by solicitors and had acted swiftly to correct the mistake.
Some suggested the backlash has been more pointed because she is a working-class woman from the North, while Tory figures facing graver scandals have escaped with less scrutiny.
Others voiced frustration at Conservative attacks, pointing to tax controversies involving former Tory chancellor Nadhim Zahawi, and the PPE scandal involving Michelle Mone under Boris Johnson’s tenure.
But even sympathetic readers admitted the error has damaged Rayner, with some saying resignation may be her only way back.
Critics argued she knew what she was doing, stressing that ordinary people would be fined for similar mistakes and that politicians must be held to higher standards. A few went further, branding her a “tax dodger” and insisted she step down.
Here’s what you had to say:
The richest of rich
I take a very dim view of Rayner’s conduct regarding paying less tax than was due on her Hove apartment purchase.
However, it is the richest of rich for Kemi Badenoch to lecture Starmer, Rayner and Labour about ethics and rule-breaking. The 14 years of her Conservatives previously being in government were typified by perpetual rule-breaking and corruption.
DisgustedOfMiddleEngland
Reasonable explanation
This was a reasonable explanation as most of us would rely on experts for a transaction of this nature. There seems no evidence at this stage of “evasion”.
We will have to wait for the report of the ethics adviser to know more.
Time to move on to other things until then.
49niner
No moral high ground
Badenoch asks why Rayner is still in office? For the same reason Johnson was still in office after being fined for breaking the law during Covid.
For the same reason Sunak was also fined, yet stayed in post. For the same reason no one has been taken to task for the millions that went missing during Covid. For the same reasons Michelle Mone is still walking the streets. For the same reasons Truss gets £115k a year after wrecking the economy in seven weeks.
For the same reasons no one has been taken to task for the Post Office scandal, Covid deaths, Grenfell, IPP prisoners, the contaminated blood scandal, the deaths at Haslar Hospital, Windrush, and a lot more besides.
Don’t look for a moral high ground Badenoch. You ain’t got one, especially as a Tory.
RM09
Held to a higher standard
She is held to a higher standard than the average man on the street due to her position. The wrong advice plea does not apply with HMRC, you are responsible for your tax regardless of advice from advisers. Many users of previous schemes have found that with fines and taxes collected to correct their affairs.
She has manipulated a system that is clear as day on the HMRC website, which provides a calculating tool via questions. There is no way she didn’t know what she was doing and her admission proves that.
David4978938277
HMRC would throw the book at me
I don’t have it in for Angela Rayner, far from it. But if, as a normal working person, I made a mistake on my tax return, regardless of any advice, HMRC would come for me and throw the book at me. Why should a politician get different treatment?
BeardMonk
De facto admission of intent
It depends on the question she put to her financial adviser. If her question was, how can I “legally” avoid this tax, she’s a tax dodger, pure and simple… perhaps even worse. If she then proceeded to remove her name from the title deeds of her family home, that speaks volumes… It’s a ‘de facto’ admission of intent to evade tax. An offence. She is legally liable for her own actions with or without proper advice.
I’m not sure there’s a single property-owning person in the UK who doesn’t know that buying a second property (rather than what most of us have to do, selling the first to pay for the second) incurs higher stamp duty, that there is a progressive stamp duty scale, and that selling a second property incurs CGT.
Lawyers and tax advisers can only give advice, based on the question put and the information given to them. If someone is economical with the truth, they only have themselves to blame.
Like a computer, inaccurate information in, inaccurate information out.
Rearview
Nothing wrong
She was given legal advice that she relied upon, trusting the solicitors that carried out the conveyancing to get the law correct. She has done nothing wrong. The solicitors that advised her incorrectly should foot the bill.
CaptainCommonSense
The judge will be HMRC
The judge in this case will be HMRC.
She did pay stamp duty but at a lower rate because of the complications of ownership of the house in Ashton U-L, her constituency. The case is now being reviewed by the tax man who may find deliberate evasion through to no case to answer. Both seem unlikely.
The political storm is too great to allow due process to proceed it seems.
RegCostello
Mistakes corrected
Obviously, mistakes were made in the advice given and have been corrected. As long as the version Angela Rayner has given is totally correct then the matter should rest. Of course, she is a Northern woman from a working-class background and in a position of influence and power, so there are those in the establishment who find this difficult to swallow and will seek to undermine her whenever possible.
Rover
Irrational hatred
I like Angela Rayner. I think she sets a good example for young women or girls from ordinary backgrounds. And, like her, I grew up in Tameside. I’m baffled by the level of irrational hatred she inspires. Is it jealousy, snobbery, misogyny? A combination of the three? I hope she survives her current ordeal.
Longmemory23
A bit rich
It’s a bit rich, isn’t it, for the party of taxpayer-heated stables, giving PPE largesse to your barman, and offshored profits, to stick the boot into a working-class lass. You trust professionals to give you proper advice, when it turns out to be wrong, apologise, make amends and move on.
And how’s ‘Lady’ Mone’s prosecution for allegedly defrauding the taxpayer of millions going?
SynthGuy
Not up to the job
Rayner is very tough and courageous.
But she is clearly not up to the job.
Anyone who can’t organise her own finances shouldn’t be entrusted to run the country.
Cyclone8
Careless behaviour or genuine mistake?
This isn’t tax evasion. However, it could be viewed by HMRC as careless behaviour if the original advice she received was not from a properly qualified person. In that case, financial penalties would apply on top of the tax due. If the original advice was from a properly qualified person, HMRC would view the matter as a genuine error and would only expect payment of the tax due. It all hinges on whether the original advice she relied on was given to her by a professional tax adviser or not.
If she exhibited careless behaviour in her tax dealings she should resign her ministerial post, but if hers was just a genuine mistake she could continue in her post without blemish.
Pomerol95
The right thing to do
Rather than sack her, she should be allowed to resign pending a proper enquiry (which on the available evidence may exonerate her).
That will take away a lot of the media attention because we all know they are just baying for blood and are not much interested in the finer points of tax law as applicable to family trusts established to care for disabled children.
In 1998 Lord Mandelson left Cabinet over a failure to properly declare a mortgage loan from a Cabinet colleague. Ten months later he was back in government.
He stepped down again in 2003 (over the Hinduja brothers passport row), but within a year he was Britain’s EU Trade Commissioner, and was later ennobled by Gordon Brown to return to Cabinet as business secretary.
For Rayner, resignation now is the right thing to do. And also, probably, the cleanest route to return to government after a decent interval.
SteveHill
Serious misjudgement
This has been a serious misjudgement by Rayner. If you want to keep your family out of the light, you make 1000 per cent sure the advice you get is squeaky clean and watertight.
Her lack of judgement by not doing this means SHE has caused any upset to her family.
She has to go.
Imsethorus
Some of the comments have been edited for this article for brevity and clarity.
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