Dramatic intervention by Labour Deputy's ex
Angela Rayner was last night facing mounting pressure over her 'two homes' row after one of her former aides told police that she had not told the truth about her real 'home'.
Matt Finnegan, Ms Rayner's former chief adviser, has given a statement to Greater Manchester Police in which he states that her actual home was with her then husband – not at the former council house where she was registered on the electoral roll.
The testimony is the latest evidence to shatter the insistence by Labour's deputy leader that she has not broken any rules.
Police announced on Friday that they are investigating claims – first published in The Mail on Sunday – that Ms Rayner breached electoral law by registering a former right-to-buy council house in Vicarage Road, Stockport, as her home, rather than a nearby property in Lowndes Lane, occupied by her then husband and three children.
Police announced on Friday that they are investigating claims – first published in The Mail on Sunday – that Ms Rayner breached electoral law
Ms Rayner breached electoral law by registering a former right-to-buy council house in Vicarage Road, Stockport (pictured), as her home - it is claimed
She did so for five years after the couple married.
Ms Rayner responded to the police statement by saying that she would step down if she is found to have committed a criminal offence.
Mr Finnegan has told the police that he visited Ms Rayner in Lowndes Lane in the summer of 2014 – around the time she became a parliamentary candidate.
In his statement, he said: 'There was no doubt in my mind that this was Ms Rayner's family home, where she lived with her then husband, Mark.'
READ MORE: Odds plunge on Angela Rayner becoming next Labour party leader after she vowed to quit if police find she broke the law over council house saleAdvertisement
His letter to police, quoted by The Sunday Times, adds: 'I remember it quite vividly because Ms Rayner was not at home at first and I had to wait for some time in my car before she eventually arrived. It was also memorable in that it was the first and only time I visited her home during the course of my voluntary work for her.'
Greater Manchester Police will hold a meeting tomorrow to discuss a strategy for their investigation.
In addition to the electoral law issue, the saga has also raised separate, non-criminal issues of tax liability – because married couples have to nominate one property as their main residence.
If Ms Rayner had been living in Lowndes Lane this would have rendered her Vicarage Road property liable for capital gains tax when she sold it nine years ago, making a profit of £48,500.
Experts believe that she could be liable for an HMRC bill of up to £3,500.
Government guidance says that tenants can apply to buy their council home through the right-to-buy scheme if it is their 'only or main home'.
Last night, sources close to Ms Rayner tried to cast doubt on Mr Finnegan's credibility as a witness.
A Labour spokesman said: 'Angela has always made it clear that she also spent time at her husband's property when they had children and got married, as he did at hers.
'The house she owned remained her main home. Angela looks forward to sitting down with the appropriate authorities, including the police and HMRC, to set out the facts and draw a line under this matter.'
The controversy has dogged Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer since this newspaper first reported the arrangement – which was contained in a biography of Ms Rayner by Lord Ashcroft – on our front page on February 25.
If Ms Rayner had been living in Lowndes Lane this would have rendered her Vicarage Road property liable for capital gains tax when she sold it nine years ago, making a profit of £48,500. (File pic, March 28, 2024)
Greater Manchester Police will hold a meeting tomorrow to discuss a strategy for their investigation
Labour strategists hope a police investigation will conclude that no action needs to be taken. The party is likely to then try to declare the matter closed, even though the probe will not cover Ms Rayner's alleged tax liability.
Ms Rayner says that she has taken 'expert legal and tax advice' on her position, but has so far declined to publish it, or even show it to Sir Keir.
READ MORE: The three unanswered questions Angela Rayner faces over her tax affairs
AdvertisementSignificantly, Labour's hopes of their deputy being cleared have been raised by the fact that nearly a decade has passed since she moved out of the properties, and the police rarely pursue historic infringements of electoral law. Providing false information is an offence under Section 13D of the Representation of the People Act 1983, but the legislation imposes a time limit of a year for bringing any charge. A magistrates' court can extend that deadline in certain, rare circumstances.
The police investigation could also be severely hampered because the local council no longer holds key data relevant to the inquiry.
Local sources say Stockport Council's 'data retention' policy means that it doesn't hold information on issues such as the details of council-funded changes to Ms Rayner's then husband's house – a kerb was lowered in the driveway – which could have pointed to her 'real' address.
However, the police would have access to information such as utility bills, credit checks and DVLA records.
Officers would also be expected to interview neighbours.
Residents of Vicarage Road at the time have told reporters Ms Rayner was known as the 'landlady' at the property and that they rarely saw her.
Sylvia Hampson, a resident of Lowndes Lane, has called Ms Rayner a 'f***ing liar' for insisting that she didn't live there.
The MoS last week revealed dozens of posts made by Ms Rayner on social media showing her life with her children and cats at her then husband's address.
One photo from the property she claims not to have lived at was even posted with the caption 'just got home'.
Mr Finnegan worked as an adviser and speechwriter for Ms Rayner between 2015 and 2017. That year, he left her office while on sick leave with diabetes in circumstances that have never been made public. His subsequent action for 'unfair dismissal and disability discrimination' was settled but apparently only after then shadow chancellor John McDonnell learned that Mr Finnegan had kept numerous texts and emails from Ms Rayner.
The Labour Party offered Mr Finnegan £20,000 on the condition that he signed a non-disclosure agreement.
Shortly afterwards he published a political thriller called Betrayal. The plot centres on a ruthless Labour MP, Abigail Jeffers – an ambitious trade union official turned MP known to her staff as 'the Diva' – who is caught making a bogus expenses claim for a hotel bill after a drunken one-night stand with a fellow member of the shadow cabinet. After the shadow chancellor finds out, he tells her to resign. When he falls into a diabetic coma, Abigail gives him a fatal overdose of insulin to conceal her misdeed.
Her crime is eventually discovered by a Daily Mail journalist. In her statement on Friday, Ms Rayner said she was 'completely confident' that she had followed the rules and would 'of course do the right thing and step down' if found to have committed a crime.
She was accused of 'double standards' for not resigning now, with Tory MPs pointing out she called on Boris Johnson to step down when he was being investigated for Covid rule-breaking in 2022.
Defence Secretary Grant Shapps said: 'The double standards are extraordinary.
'Angela Rayner herself has spent her political career calling people out for exactly the thing she seems to be doing now.
'It's not acceptable to ignore it and it's not acceptable for Keir Starmer to say he won't even read reports into it.'
Greater Manchester Police refused to answer detailed questions on their probe, simply reiterating its original statement that it is 'investigating whether any offences have been committed'.