I am already immensely bored by the Angela Rayner stamp duty story.
For the record, I doubt she will survive this episode in office. Her story does not stack with me: I am aware of just how deeply inclined solicitors are to ensure that their clients pay maximum stamp duty if there is any doubt as to the liability owing; I have seen a transaction where that was the case in the last month. I am also aware of just how disinclined lawyers are to advise on this issue, always outsourcing it to others if they can. That happened in the instance in question, and the conveyancing lawyers would not budge from their position without third-party advice to persuade them to do so. As a result, Rayner's position feels vulnerable, but events might prove the error was made elsewhere, and she might survive.
However, that is not my reason for writing this post. My question is quite different to that which others are asking. It is, so what? So what, in other words, if Rayner does go? What difference will it make?
She appears to have done nothing to make Labour deliver.
Her supposed left-of-centre influence appears to have been non-existent on Starmer.
Her achievements on housing, so far, appear to be minimal; there's not even a whiff of a decent policy in the air.
She is most definitely not the heir apparent to Starmer, even if she has a sense of cool command at the Despatch Box.
And she has remained loyally as Deputy Leader in a government that has stood by, watched and supported genocide whilst cracking down on freedom of speech and protest for anyone left-of-centre in the UK, whilst all the time responding to right-wing racist thuggery by trying to grant every concession they can to their toxic demands.
She is, then, a failed minister. Whatever credentials she brought to the job have vanished in office.
In that case, whether she goes or not, because of whether she paid the right amount of stamp duty or not, is inconsequential. She, like the government of which she is a part, has failed the country, and as deputy leader she has real responsibility for that.
Please, then, don't ask me to be overly worried if she has to go to the backbenches. Once the moment is over - and it will be soon, either way - no one will notice any more.
It is the big issues that matter - and this whole episode is a sideshow engineered by the right-wing to ensure we do not notice what is really happening in this country. That is the big issue. The right is all too happy to have that big issue ignored because what is happening in the UK is toxic, which appeals to them.
Rayner made an error of judgment, whatever turns out to be the case in this matter, but that is not the big issue. That we're on the pathway to fascism, and she has so far done nothing to stop it, is much more important than whether or not she paid stamp duty, and no one is talking about that.
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Unless she deliberately ‘misrepresented her position’ to her solicitors as you say they will tell her what to pay
Much ado about nothing I thing
Agreed. Westminster village gossip – Labour factional in-fighting -zzzzzzzzzzz
But isn’t it interesting how people on the public payroll, who claim to believe in “tax then spend” economics, and who shudder at rising “debt”, and bemoan the cost of government “borrowing”, don’t hesitate to pay as little tax as possible, claim as many exemptions as possible, and if in doubt, make sure that the tax take goes down, and the debt rises.
It’s almost as if they knew all along that the UK Gov’t can’t run out of money….
Fair points. The usual suspects will be exaggerating/celebrating. & it is a useful diversion from Starmer & his zionist/neoliberals-r-us regime. The UK meja is nothing if not reliable on focusing on trivia.
Quite right what exactly has Rayner done to stop the predation going on in UK society? It appears that she herself might well be one of the predators by avoiding paying her fair share of tax. Perhaps one day voters might understand to minimise predation you have to link democracy with a good grasp of how money actually works!
I don’t know how culpable Rayner is or whether she will survive or not, but suggest whether she does may be more consequential than you think. I am not sure if she resigns as a cabinet minister whether she would have to resign as Deputy Leader of the Labour party. If that is the case that would trigger an election and an internal Labour battle which could be ugly but significant. It would allow an argument about the direction of the party and present someone else with a platform to challenge for the leadership in due course. No wonder Starmer is backing Rayner. He could do without that headache just before the conference. On your main point-that what matters is the fight against fascism, I agree, but who leads the Labour party and what their policies are is a major issue in that battle.
Leadership/policies of this govt are entirely irrelevant. The party’s sold out & I see no prospect of recovery. AR’s a disappointment – she’s one of the few remaining MPs who must remember what it was like to be impecunious.
There appears to be an air of inevitably about Rayner’s demise. It is clear McSweeney wanted rid of her all along but as she was elected deputy leader by party members there was little he could do unless she gave him the ammunition to do so. Whatever the truth may be behind the situation, it does not look good. However this should not hide the fact that, in modern times, Labour’s record on planning has been truly awful. It started with the dreadful Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 and then the Planning Act 2008. Policy-wise, Labour have been an absolute disaster. I used to write about this for many years in various journals so what I say is there for all to see. Ironically, the modern planning system was created by the 1947 Act and Attlee’s government. It’s a pity today’s Labour politicians appear to have forgotten that.
My only concern is that it will be used as “what aboutism” deflection by politicians doing actual harm, like inciting racial hatred in a manner that they believe is subtle but is actually all too clear.
I think that this tells us more about the media that we have in the UK, than Rayner.
From what I have read, I don’t think it is as bad as the Homelessness Minister who evicted her tenants, then rented the property out at a much higher rent. She fell on her sword, while telling everyone that she broke no rules — which of course was true. However, her morality was questionable given Labour’s supposed stance on renters’ rights.
There may be more to come out about Rayner, and of course, the fascist lapdog media will be hunting high and low for it. They are desperate for anything that will show wrong doing, and even if it is just bad judgement on her part, they want blood.
Of course, when they get the Tory right in power, or fascist wannabees, they turn a blind eye.
What the fascists of Reform are doing in local government right now is far worse, yet silence from the right wing media.
No surprise there.
But I think she will fall on her sword. The right wing media are not going to let it go. Labour will want it to be pass, and she will be sacrificed regardless of who is right and wrong.
There is a lesson for the left here, and it doesn’t matter what “the left” thinks about Starmer, Labour in power, or Rayner. There is a media waiting to destroy the left if they get a sniff of power. And if a real left wing government were to ever get power, that media will be a little like the fictional Terminator. Its aim will be to destroy, and there can be no compromise. That is the media we have – it is not going away.
Have I Got News have called it well.
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1DHK2hQtL8/
Agreed on most of that.
And what’s interesting about this story in the media is to do with the fact that whether she’s deliberately broken rules is the least of it. It’s all about optics.
The real issues (e.g. What’s she achieving in office? How can she support the Government on Gaza, austerity, migrant-bashing etc) are seen as irrelevant.
It’s fair to say it was ever thus, and ergo not interesting.
But at a time when the British political landscape appears to be in greater flux than in over 80 years, it’s fascinating that this old-fashioned scandal seems to be being seized-upon by many journalists and politicians as a welcome familiar distraction from chaos with which they are struggling to deal.
It’s not just as if we as a society are believed only to be able to debate via proxies of symbols, hate-figures, soundbites, and anecdotes. It’s also that our politicians and journalists don’t have another way to operate either.
There are I feel still plenty of members of the PLP who could easily fill the role as ‘token working class person’ in the vein of John Prescott.
Cheerio Angela.
But I mean – Hove? Are you serious? Most people in that area I know are leaving and coming to the Midlands because of the expense of living down there. What has that expensive area of he country got to do with securing a future for her disabled son?
She should be spending her time securing a secure future for her voter’s disabled sons and daughters.
It tells you something this does and sticks in my craw.
It is boring and another distraction from the real problem we face, and ignored by MSM.
The mainstream media story should be that seaside flats are going for this price.
It seems AR put at least part of her share of the former family home in Manchester area in a trust for her disabled child, following her recent divorce, so her disabled son could have stability.
Seems AR might stay in this home ….as a part of an amicable divorce and need to support the children.? Who knows….? Divorce is messy and difficult especially with a child with long term care needs.
The London residence is owned by the state, and the seaside flat has been bought by her , who knows if it’s her new partner too…
These parts of the story are hard to dig out from the pile on.
To add seems AR was technically a co owner of the house as her disabled son is 17 she’s legally still a co owner, even if she’s not living there.
I am not convinced: we do not know the trust arrangement and so In suggest we don’t speculate.
Rayner’s position isn’t as simple as a minister shunted to the backbench as she’s the elected deputy leader of the Labour Party.
I presume this is a cabinet position even without a portfolio and if Starmer were run over by a bus or resigned Rayner would be acting leader until a new one elected.
I agree on her uselessness.
I think she’s become the story and will be gone before teatime tomorrow.
Mar P said it all in an earlier post: the media in this country are truly awful, but seem to revel in it. They’ve desperately tried to enable fascism here on more than one occasion in the past and are on that pathway again. The British people don’t want it, yet the media are undeterred. They try to paint pluralism as a form of communism. It is hard not to laugh at their efforts to discredit anybody who wants a fair and just society. Hypocrisy in so much of the drivel they spew out.
The news tonight does not look good for her.
Rayner cannot do much about housing without significant money and, if local councils were required to build and let homes – as they did prior to Thatcher – whoever is Housing Minister might stand a chance of doing something useful. In addition, climate change is a very big deal that is being neglected.
“The risk of a tipping point for AMOC (Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation) collapse by 2100 is over 90% under a high-emission scenario and over 50% under an intermediate climate change scenario.” Utrecht University (Aug 31 2025). “Given the devastating impacts [of AMOC collapse] lasting many centuries, we really want this to be less than 1%,” said Stefan Rahmstorf, Professor at Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany. If AMOC weakens, cold air temperatures would expand to cover Iceland, Britain and Scandinavia, with unprecedented storms.
Wildfire weather in Spain and Portugal is being made 40 times more likely by climate crisis, study finds. (Guardian 4 Sep 2025). EU wildfires worst on record as burning season continues. (23 Aug 2025)
Two years ago, Kevin Anderson of Manchester University stated “Serious climate action would be mobilising society’s productive capacity to deliver a stable climate with minimum detrimental impacts – a huge challenge but a public good for all!
An early win would be
• an immediate moratorium on airport expansion and
• a fair 80% cut in all air travel by 2030.
• no more new internal combustion engine cars would be built from 2025
• a huge shift away from private cars in cities and urban environments coupled with
• a shift towards public transport and active travel.
• rural communities might continue to use EVs, but with a rental rather than ownership model.
• retrofit of existing homes, not just a pilot scheme but actually rolling it out street by street at mass scale.
• all new properties to be constructed to passive house standards with a maximum size of 100 to 150 square metres – still large homes, but with much less resource and material use – and of course less land! Why are we building homes that are 200 to 400 square metres?”
We care about grandchildren. Whether Rayner or someone else, it’s long past time for Ministers to get their teeth into the tasks.
Much to agree with – especially on air travel.
Did she say (or was she about to say) something pointed about Gaza – such that Mossad decided to release the kompromat?
Someone had kompromat – this is not publicly available data.