Angela Rayner admits she failed to pay enough tax in bombshell statement

By Jonathan Walker, Whitehall Editor

Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner (Image: Getty)

Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner has admitted that she failed to pay the full amount of stamp dutyon her £800,000 seaside flat in Hove. She has referred herself to the prime minister’s ethics adviser and confirmed she will have to pay more property tax - which could be as much as £40,000. It comes after Ms Rayner's allies spent weeks denying she had done anything wrong.

The Deputy Prime Minister is known to spend time in three properties including a constituency home in Ashton-under-Lyne, a grace-and-favour apartment in Admiralty House on Whitehall, and a new flat in Hove. But when she bought the flat in Hove in May, she classed it as her only property. It meant she paind only £30,000 in stamp duty, rather than the higher rate of £70,000.

However she has elsewhere listed her constituency home as her primary property.

This is a breaking story and we will report more details as they emerge.