Angela Rayner has found herself in the middle of another sleaze row after it emerged that her constituency home in Ashton-under-Lyne was valued at the exact inheritance tax threshold of £650,000, prompting accusations that she has discovered a secret level in Britain’s housing market where the numbers line up perfectly and the taxman mysteriously vanishes.
Most houses I value are either worth £200,000 or, if they’ve got a conservatory, £210,000. The idea of landing perfectly on £650,000 is like tossing a dart blindfolded and hitting the bullseye while falling down the stairs
A local estate agent
The Deputy Prime Minister, already juggling an £800,000 seaside pad in Hove and a grace-and-favour London apartment, has now been branded “Three Pads Rayner” by her critics, who accuse her of playing the property game like a professional gambler with three spare aces up her sleeve. One Tory MP complained: “She’s got more homes than some people have working boilers.”
Property specialists called the valuation a “remarkable coincidence,” though one backbencher simply called it “taking the piss.” The £650,000 figure is the exact inheritance tax nil-rate band for two people, meaning the Ashton property could pass on without a penny owed to HMRC. As one tax expert put it: “If this is a coincidence, then so was the Millennium Bug.”
Rayner has already been accused of dodging £40,000 in stamp duty by telling HMRC that her Hove home is her primary residence, while simultaneously telling the Cabinet Office that her Manchester address is her main home, all while mostly living in a third taxpayer-funded flat in Westminster. Critics argue this is less a housing policy and more a housing strategy game where Angela keeps all the pieces.
The controversy deepened when it was revealed Rayner used a firm specialising in “wealth protection” to help dispose of her share of the Manchester property. Colleagues in the Labour Party say it is part of a wider briefing war, with rival factions leaking damaging details in preparation for the day Sir Keir Starmer finally accepts he is less popular than bin collections.
