What was HMRC’s investigation into Angela Rayner’s tax affairs all about?

Angela Rayner has been cleared by HMRC of deliberate wrongdoing or carelessness over her tax affairs, the Guardian reported , paving the way for a potential leadership bid as Keir Starmer’s grip on power unravels. What was the tax issue that led to Angela Rayner’s resignation? When the then deputy prime minister bought a flat in Hove with her partner in April 2025, she paid the standard rate of stamp duty – £30,000 – on the £800,000 transaction. That purchase was part-funded by the proceeds of selling her 25% share in the family home, in her constituency of Ashton-under-Lyne, to a trust set up in the name of her disabled son. The trust had been created by court order years earlier, after her son was awarded damages due to a medical incident when he was a baby. After a series of press stories revealed that the Ashton-under-Lyne property was owned by her son’s trust, however, Rayner took additional legal advice, and accepted that she should have paid the higher rate of stamp duty , £70,000, levied on second homeowners. She also conceded that she should have taken advice from a tax specialist during the purchase – an omission the prime minister’s ethics adviser Laurie Magnus described as, “deeply regrettable”. What was HMRC investigating? Rayner’s lawyer says that HMRC has been satisfied throughout its inquiry that she did not engage in deliberate tax avoidance. …