Labour hypocrisy was said to be on ‘full show’ today after Angela Rayner was claimed to have escaped shelling out £40,000 in stamp duty on her new coastal flat.

The Deputy Prime Minister is reported to have told tax authorities that her £800,000 seaside apartment in Hove, East Sussex, was her main place of residence.

She took her name off the deeds of a property in her Greater Manchester constituency only weeks before purchasing the Hove flat, it was reported.

The deed changes supposedly allowed the Cabinet minister to pay £30,000 in stamp duty instead of £70,000, which would have been applied if the Hove property was her second home.

It comes after Ms Rayner’s own department has warned against the impact of second homes in pricing others out of the housing market.

The Labour deputy leader has also repeatedly hit out at ‘tax dodgers’ during her years as an MP in the House of Commons.

And she criticised the previous Tory government when it eased the stamp duty burden on homebuyers with temporary changes to the property levy.

At this autumn’s Budget, Chancellor Rachel Reeves is widely expected to announce fresh tax hikes – including potential new property charges – as she seeks to plug a £50billion spending gap.

The Mail on Sunday revealed Ms Rayner, who is also Labour’s Housing Secretary, had bought the Hove flat in addition to her £650,000 house in Greater Manchester.

She also enjoys a three-bedroom grace-and-favour flat in Admiralty House.

Ms Rayner is said to have told Tameside Council that her home situated in her Ashton-under-Lyne constituency continues to be her primary residence.

Brighton and Hove Council has also been notified by the politician that her apartment there is a second home, for the purposes of council tax.

This means she is liable for the second homes premium on council tax, which she pays in full.

Earlier this year, Tameside Council also approved plans for people with second homes in the area to pay double in council tax.

Ms Rayner’s changes to her property affairs – first reported by The Telegraph – are legal.

But they will spark debate as to whether the Housing Secretary purposefully made decisions to pay less council tax and stamp duty.

Some Labour MPs called on Ms Rayner to be ‘more transparent’ about her financial affairs.

‘She really could have shut this all down by just being more transparent,’ one MP told The Times.

Dame Priti Patel, the Tory shadow foreign secretary, branded the Deputy PM a ‘hypocrite and a freeloader’.

‘She wants everyone else to pay higher taxes on family homes but doesn’t want to pay it herself,’ Dame Priti said.

Sir James Cleverly, the Tory shadow housing secretary, said: ‘Labour hypocrisy on full show.

‘Putting up taxes, telling everyone that they need to pay more, then doing this.’

A spokesman for Ms Rayner said: ‘The Deputy PM paid the relevant duty owing on the purchase of the Hove property in line with relevant requirements and entirely properly, any suggestion otherwise is entirely without basis.’

Ms Rayner is understood to have ceased to own a stake in the Ashton-under-Lyne property, following her divorce, in a process that began in advance of her purchase of the Hove property.

But it is also understood her primary residence for council tax purposes remains the family home in Ashton-under-Lyne, as this is where her children live and go to college and where shr regularly returns and shares childcare.

There is no requirement to own any share of a property for it to be designated as the primary residence.

Sources close to Ms Rayner strongly disputed any notion she had ‘dodged’ paying stamp duty or any suggestion of impropriety. 

Ms Reeves raised surcharge rates on stamp duty for second home owners last October – an initiative originally introduced by the Conservatives in 2016.

Ms Rayner has repeatedly hit out at ‘tax dodgers’ during her years as an MP.

In November 2017, she praised then-Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn for raising the ‘tax dodging issue’ during Prime Minister’s Questions in the House of Commons.

‘The public are furious with those who get away with tax avoidance while they pay!,’ she tweeted.

In March 2021, Ms Rayner attacked then-chancellor Rishi Sunak’s extension of a stamp duty holiday on the first £500,000 of all property sales.

She claimed at the time it would be ‘a massive tax cut for wealthy second home owners and landlords’.

Ms Rayner added on social media: ‘Rishi Sunak will hand half a billion pounds to landlords and second homeowners by extending the stamp duty holiday.

‘Meanwhile, he is refusing to give our NHS and social care heroes the pay rise they deserve.’

When the stamp duty cut was first introduced by the previous Conservative government, in an attempt to boost property sales during the Covid crisis, Ms Rayner warned the move had ‘inflated the housing market and provided a tax giveaway worth thousands for wealthy homeowners’.

In April 2018, Ms Rayner blasted a ‘Tory tax loophole’ amid claims the then-health secretary Jeremy Hunt saved almost £100,000 in stamp duty on his purchase of seven flats.

Government minister Stephen Kinnock delivered a staunch defence of Ms Rayner this morning, insisting the Deputy PM had acted ‘fully within the law’.

He told LBC: ‘The Deputy PM has made it absolutely clear she has done absolutely nothing wrong. I do wonder sometimes about some of the newspapers out there just seem to be sort of constantly looking to dig out stories.’

Mr Kinnock also dismissed a suggestion it was an example of ‘do as I say, not as I do’ from Ms Rayner.

‘As far as I can understand it, I’m not absolutely involved in it, of course, in the detailed discussions,’ he told presenter Nick Ferrari.

‘But my understanding from the statement that has come from the Deputy PM’s office is that she has done absolutely nothing wrong. Everything she has done is fully within the law.’

Pressed on whether there was any ‘stink’ to Ms Rayner’s actions, he added: ‘I am very clear, in terms of what the Deputy PM’s office has said, and what Angela is saying is clearly is that this is not an issue.

‘She has complied with the letter of the law and that is the situation as we find it today this morning.’

But property expert Kirstie Allsopp, who presents TV’s Location, Location, Location, posted on social media: ‘This Government have NO shame, they imposed taxes on the rest of us but find ways not to pay them themselves.’

Insiders close to Ms Rayner maintained over the weekend that the politician’s home in the north of England was her ‘primary residence’ for the purposes of council tax. 

Such a move would mean the Deputy Prime Minister would dodge paying taxes for her Admiralty House flat in London. 

The £2,034 council-tax bill for her grace-and-favour Admiralty House apartment is picked up by the taxpayer. 

This is because it is listed as her second home, with the constituency house named as her primary residence.

If the Grade I-listed building in Whitehall was treated as her main home, she would be liable to pay council tax on it. 

According to The Telegraph’s report, changes are being made to the Land Registry on her Ashton-under-Lyne home but these are yet to be disclosed publicly. 

Before the Labour minister purchased the flat in Hove in May, an application was reportedly made to alter the ownership on the property. 

If second home owners sell their property within a three-year grace period, they can claim back the surcharge. 

However, there is no requirement which states Ms Rayner must own the house in Greater Manchester for it to be her main residence. 

Her ex-husband Mark Rayner, who she is divorcing, lives in the property with their children.  

Ms Rayner’s spokesperson has refused to reveal how much the Cabinet minister had spent on stamp duty for the East Sussex flat, however, they denied she had committed any wrongdoing.

Ms Rayner followed advice and longstanding rules at all times, and had paid the relevant tax required on the Hove property, sources close to the politician have said. 

Sources also said she does pay the second-home council tax on her property in Hove, and that her living arrangements were due to working in several locations as a result of her role. 

They also noted the Deputy Prime Minister has never owned a property in London, or nearby.

Ms Rayner has been accused by the Tories of breaking electoral law to avoid paying council tax on Admiralty House.

The council tax bill for Ms Rayner’s flat in Admiralty House is covered by the taxpayer if it is designated as a second home.

But this arrangement hinges on her home in Ashton-under-Lyne being her primary residence.

The Conservatives last night initiated a legal process to have Ms Rayner struck off the electoral roll in Ashton-under-Lyne on the basis that she does not ‘meet the legal tests for living there’.

Tory chairman Kevin Hollinrake said: ‘Her three electoral registrations are a sham, cooked up to help her dodge council tax.

‘She wants higher taxes on family homes, but doesn’t want to pay it herself. As the minister in charge of election law and council tax, ‘three votes Rayner’ cannot be a law-maker and a law-breaker.

‘We are calling on the council to strike her from the electoral roll to safeguard the integrity of elections, and remove the fig leaf she is using to avoid paying council tax.’

It comes after Reform UK deputy leader Richard Tice blasted Ms Rayner for being ‘the Everest of hypocrisy’ as she faced scrutiny for her most recent property purchase. 

‘She laments a housing shortage, wants to soak the rich, whilst selfishly building her own property mountain,’ he added.

Ms Rayner has been branded a hypocrite for buying the seaside apartment in Hove while her own department warns against the impact of second homes.

One of her ministers has previously hit out at the damage caused by the wealthy buying up boltholes for themselves or to rent out in popular areas, pricing locals out of the market.

Housing minister Matthew Pennycook has spoken in Parliament about the ‘negative impacts of excessive concentrations of short-term lets and second homes’, which affect ‘local services’ as well as ‘the availability and affordability of homes for local residents to buy and rent’.

He has told MPs that his and Ms Rayner’s department – which has already given town halls the power to double council tax on second homes – wants to ‘give local communities more power to tackle some of those problems’.

Ms Rayner herself has declared that Britain is in ‘the middle of the most acute housing crisis in living memory’, while Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has warned that second homes ‘can impact the availability and affordability’ of local properties.

Her recent property purchase also coincides with moves by Ms Reeves to hit the middle classes with new property taxes in the autumn Budget as the Chancellor scrambles to plug an estimated £50billion ‘black hole’ in the public finances.

This includes the possible removal of the capital gains tax exemption for the sale of higher-value homes, as well as a replacing stamp duty with an annual charge.

Treasury officials are also said to be eyeing an inheritance tax raid, and considering plans to impose National Insurance on rental income.

In a memo that was leaked to The Telegraph in May, Ms Rayner pushed to increase the tax burden on Brits further instead of trimming spending and benefits.

The memo – sent to Ms Reeves before the Spring Statement – suggested eight different tax rises that would raise billions of pounds in revenue.

This included reinstating the pensions lifetime allowance and a higher corporation tax level for banks.

Earlier this week, a top polling expert said the row over Ms Rayner’s three homes was a ‘danger’ for Labour and risks pushing more voters towards Reform UK.

Chris Hopkins, political research director of Savanta. told The i Paper: ‘While this story feels like something only those in Westminster will likely pay any attention to, it does provide a few dangers for Labour.

‘First is that it could reinforce the idea that Labour are just as bad as all other parties.

‘Following a summer of donations scandals last year after presenting a holier-than-thou elections campaign, something like this rearing its head is unlikely to help the party reverse its image.

‘Secondly, the fact it’s about Rayner herself, the party’s most ‘normal’ asset, could have negative implications.

‘If even Rayner is tarnished with the same brush as all politicians, Labour stands so little hope of differentiating itself from a public that continues to despise politicians, making insurgent parties such as Reform UK far less risky in the minds of voters.’