The Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner has been accused of using £160,000 from a trust which was established to care for her disabled son to buy the £800,000 seafront flat.
Rayner is alleged to have sold 25% share of her home in Ashton-under-Lyne, Greater Manchester to her sons trust for £162,500.
Rayner’s son was born prematurely and he received compensation five years ago which was paid into a trust to help protect his interests, the Deputy Prime Minister said on Wednesday.
The Telegraph said the hospital payout came after a 11-year legal fight between the Rayner family and the hospital, whereby he suffered difficulties during the birth and her care in 2008.
Rayner paid just £30,000 in stamp duty instead of £70,000 and she claimed an error was made and she insists she has done nothing wrong and the Secretary of State for Housing has blamed the legal advice she received.
She said, “Following the substantial scrutiny surrounding my living arrangements, I wanted to set out the facts as openly and transparently as I can.
Until now, an undertaking in a court order prevented me from disclosing information about certain aspects of my personal life.
In the interests of public transparency, I applied to the court, and I was last night released from this undertaking.
She admitted that “family life can be complicated,” Rayner added, “any families across the country” are met with “complexities” like she has.
Sir Keir Starmer is fiercely defending Rayner and said during PMQs he is “proud” to sit next to the housing minister.
Starmer said, “In relation to the Deputy Prime Minister, she has explained her personal circumstances in detail.
“She has gone over and above in setting out the details… I am very proud to sit alongside a Deputy Prime Minister who is building 1.5million new homes and bringing the biggest upgrades to workers’ rights in a generation, and who has come from a working-class background to be Deputy Prime Minister of this country.
Speaking at Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs) on Wednesday the Tory leader Kemi Badenoch said, “I welcome the fact that the Deputy Prime Minister has referred herself to the ethics adviser.
She has admitted she underpaid tax. So why is she still in office?”
The Reform UK leader Nigel Farage told GB News, “If a case like that were me, you’d all be demanding that I resign. The facts are all out there in the open.
“She’s admitted she’s done it. It’s certainly an HMRC issue to begin with. I just don’t see how you survived this.”
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