POLL: Should Angela Rayner resign from the Labour frontbench?


Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner has faced scrutiny over her living situation a decade ago amid claims she failed to declare her main home properly.

Ms Rayner has insisted she lived apart from her husband and children for the first five years of her marriage and denies any wrongdoing.

But the Mail on Sunday has reported social media posts which claim to show her then-husband’s house was her main address.

In one post, she said she had “just got home” but the backdrop was the property in Stockport, where she claims she did not live.

Shadow Foreign Secretary David Lammy told Sky News on Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips that Ms Rayner had “done nothing wrong” and had the “full support” of the party.

When asked why she would not publish her tax returns having called on Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to do so, Mr Lammy said: “I think there’s a different arrangement and expectation for the prime minister than there is in this context and we are not yet in government.”

Tory chairman Richard Holden wrote to Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer urging him to answer questions on the matter, including whether he “still” believes there has been no wrongdoing.

Mr Holden wrote: “You have pledged to uphold standards in public life, but the failure by you and your deputy to answer the simplest questions about this matter makes a mockery of these claims.

“Given the clear public interest in this case, your unwillingness to investigate this fully so far, or even bother to look at legal advice Ms Rayner claims to have received, is a damning indictment of your leadership.

“Surely you recognise this matter is highly corrosive to your own reputation, not just that of your deputy.”

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Deputy chairman of the Conservative Party James Daly also called on Sir Keir to “show some leadership and open a full, transparent and independent investigation into the Rayner scandal”.

Responding to the Mail’s claims, a Labour Party spokesman said: “Angela and her husband mutually decided to maintain their existing residences to reflect their family’s circumstances and they shared childcare responsibilities.

“Angela has always made clear she also spent time at her husband’s property when they had children and got married. She was perfectly entitled to do so.”

So what do YOU think? Should Ms Rayner resign from the Labour front bench? Vote in our poll and leave your thoughts in the comment section below.

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