Rachel Reeves has insisted embattled Angela Rayner’s explanation over her taxes is “good enough for me”.
The Shadow Chancellor claimed “people are ready to move on” from the row over whether Ms Rayner should have paid capital gains tax on a property she sold in March 2015.
Ms Rayner, the Labour Deputy Leader, has insisted the house was her main residence.
But neighbours have insisted the 43-year-old was primarily living about a mile away with her then-husband Mark Rayner.
Shadow Chancellor Ms Reeves declared on Sunday: “Angela’s a friend and a colleague, and she has, you know, made her representations on this. And that’s good enough for me and I think that, you know, people are ready to move on from that.
“But it’s a bit rich for Jeremy Hunt, who owns multiple properties, which he rents out, to make a jibe at Angela Rayner who bought a council house and later sold it. I think that it’s very, very different.
“Well, look, I’ve seen the representations and what Angela has said. I have an absolute faith in Angela. She’s been very clear, she’s taken advice, and has explained the situation, and that’s good enough for me.”
Former next-door neighbour Sylvia Hampson, 83, said Ms Rayner lived in the terraced home in Lowndes Lane in Stockport for a good “six or seven years”, despite Ms Rayner’s insistence that her main home was on Vicarage Road.
The mother-of-two, who has lived in her home for 50 years, said: “She was definitely living here full-time from about 2009 or 2010. I saw her all the time, coming and going and her mum would come and visit a lot.”
Ms Reeves told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg that it would not be possible for Labour to set out the details of spending cuts that it would carry out in government.
The shadow Chancellor said: “At the moment the Government have not set out their plans by individual departments so we don’t have a spending review. I will do a spending review quickly if we win the election, but that’s not something that is possible to do from opposition.”
