David Lammy appeared to confess this morning that Labour is holding the Conservatives to a higher standard than Angela Rayner when it comes to tax transparency.
The confession came after bombshell new evidence from the Mail on Sunday, which the paper claims proves she has been lying about her housing situation.
For six weeks, Ms Rayner has insisted that her “principal property” was a house in Stockport, where she lived separately from her husband and children for the first five years of her marriage.
However a series of social media posts during that period showed her living at her husband’s address.
This morning the Shadow Foreign Secretary was confronted with allegations of hypocrisy, as Ms Rayner and Labour have demanded detailed information about Rishi Sunak and David Cameron’s tax affairs but is refusing to publish her own tax details.
Sky presenter Sir Trevor Phillips pointed out: “If she’s had this advice, why doesn’t she publish it? A year ago she complained that Mr Sunak had published his tax returns as Labour demanded ‘only after much delay’.
“On Thursday she said ‘you show me yours, I’ll show you mine’. He did, why doesn’t she just get on with it and publish the advice if she’s had it?”
Mr Lammy explicitly confessed that Labour shouldn’t be held to that same standard, because they are not yet the party of government.
He blurted out: “Look, I think there’s a different arrangement and expectation for the Prime Minister than there is in this context – we’re not yet in Government”.
However he fell into a trap with his argument, with Sir Trevor pointing out: “She said the same thing about David Cameron, she wanted David Cameron’s tax status published even for a period when he wasn’t in Parliament!”
Mr Lammy accused the Conservatives of trying to smear Ms Rayner in an election year “to distract from the £870 that average families are less well off in this country as a result of the tax burden from the Chancellor”.
He adamantly said Ms Rayner will not be publishing any tax details or advice.
Mr Lammy even laughed during one round of questioning, demanding to know: “What is the story?!”
The Mail on Sunday suggests Ms Rayner potentially faces a criminal conviction and a fine for a false declaration on the electoral roll.
Tax rules state that married couples and civil couples can normally only count one property as their main home at any one time.
Ms Rayner bought her Stockport house in 2007 under Right to Buy for £79,000, paying bills and council tax there.
If it was her primary residence, she would have been exempt from capital gains tax when she sold if in March 2015 for £127,500.
Asked by the Express at the party’s local elections campaign launch a fortnight ago whether her position would be untenable if found to have broken any rules, Sir Keir Starmer gave his full backing to his deputy.
