Police launch probe into claims Angela Rayner broke electoral law

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Deputy Labour leader Angela Rayner is being investigated by the Greater Manchester Police over allegations that she potentially broke electoral law by failing to properly disclose her main residence in official documents.

Rayner was reported to police by Conservative MP James Daly over claims she might have committed an offence in the early 2010s by giving false information about where she was living.

But the police were accused of wasting time and resources after they announced an investigation into alleged electoral offences years after the time limit to take action appeared to have passed.

Rayner claimed she was the victim of a Conservative smear campaign but said that if she was convicted of a criminal offence she would “of course do the right thing and step down”.

She added: “I have always said that integrity and accountability are important in politics. That’s why it’s important that this is urgently looked at, independently and without political interference.”

Police have been re-examining claims that the deputy Labour leader may have broken electoral law when she was living between two homes in Stockport in the years before she became an MP in May 2015.

Greater Manchester Police said on Friday: “We’re investigating whether any offences have been committed. This follows a reassessment of the information provided to us by Mr Daly.”

The allegations were first made in a biography by former Conservative deputy chair Lord Michael Ashcroft — which was serialised in the Mail on Sunday newspaper.

The book claims Rayner bought her former council house on Stockport’s Vicarage Road at a 25 per cent discount in 2007, making a profit when she sold it at the market rate eight years later.

Because she was registered to vote at the property, she would not have been liable to pay any capital gains tax on the profit.

Daly pointed out that some local people claimed Rayner may have been living primarily at a property on Lowndes Lane, the address of her then-husband, and that her brother was occupying the house on Vicarage Road.

However, Scott Wortley, a lecturer in law at the University of Edinburgh, pointed out that any prosecution should have been launched within a year of the commission of an offence.

Giving false information is an offence under section 13D of the Representation of the People Act 1983. However, the act imposes a time bar of a year for the launch of any prosecution.

The act allows an extension to the deadline under exceptional circumstances, with a magistrate’s permission. But that extends the deadline by only one more year.

Wortley said it struck him as “completely pointless” for the Manchester force to say it was investigating a potential offence under the circumstances. “It just looks like a waste of police time and police resources,” he said.

He added that, even if the force were investigating another offence, such as a tax issue relating to Rayner’s sale of her house in 2015, the time-limit for a prosecution over that would have been six years ending in 2021.

Sources close to Rayner and Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said it was not clear specifically what the GMP was investigating. The force has been approached for further comment.

The Conservative party and Tory-supporting media have relentlessly pursued the case, noting that Rayner has often led Labour calls for high standards in public life.

Rayner’s critics noted her tweet from 2022 about former premier Boris Johnson in relation to the “Partygate” scandal: “Boris Johnson’s Downing Street is under police investigation, how on earth can he think he can stay on as prime minister?”

The pressure facing Rayner is a foretaste of the kind of intense political and media scrutiny that Starmer and his team will face as they prepare for the possibility of a transfer from opposition to government.

Starmer said on Friday: “We welcome this investigation because it allows us to draw a line in relation to this matter. I have full confidence in Angela Rayner and that she hasn’t broken the rules.”

Rayner has refused to publish the tax advice she received in relation to the sale of a house more than a decade ago — saying she would only do so if Tory MPs published full details of their own finances.

“You show me yours, I’ll show you mine,” she declared on Thursday.

Dan Neidle, a tax expert, has estimated that Rayner could have been liable for a capital gains tax bill of £1,500 on the sale of the two-bedroom semi in 2015 for a profit of £48,500.

However, that may not have been the case if she had spent more than £15,000 on home improvements on Vicarage Road or if she had jointly nominated that property with her husband as their main residence.