Angela Rayner council house row: What was Labour's deputy leader accused of?

Police have said they will take no further action against Angela Rayner over accusations surrounding her living arrangements in 2010.

The official police investigation was launched weeks after the row over her former living arrangements and tax affairs first erupted.

But on 28 May, Greater Manchester Police (GMP) said they would take no further action over the allegations.

So what exactly was the deputy Labour leader accused of?

Here's what you need to know.

What were the accusations?

The row centred Ms Rayner's primary address ten years ago.

Ms Rayner said it was an ex-council house she used to own on Vicarage Road in Stockport, which she bought in 2007.

But she faced claims she lived primarily at her then husband's address in Lowndes Lane, just over a mile away.

The pair married in 2010 and have two children together.

The claims she lived mainly at her ex-husband's house mattered because she was registered to vote at the Vicarage Road address.

Under electoral rules, voters must register at their permanent home address, and there are penalties for providing false information when registering to vote.

Then there was the issue of whether she paid the right amount of tax when she sold her house.

She sold the Vicarage Road house in 2015 for £127,500, having bought it at a 25% discount through the "right-to-buy" scheme for £79,000 in 2007.

If it was her primary address, as she has claimed, she would not have had to pay capital gains tax on the £48,500 profit.

But if she had moved to Lowndes Lane, she would have had to pay up.

How did the accusations come out - and what have police said?

The claims first surfaced in February in Lord Ashcroft's unauthorised biography, Red Queen, serialised in The Mail on Sunday.

The biography also includes claims that when Ms Rayner re-registered the births of two sons she shares with Mark Rayner in 2010, she gave her husband's address.

Initially, Greater Manchester Police said there was no evidence of an offence being committed.

But on 12 April, the force said it had launched an investigation after "reassessing" information about the case.

It came after Tory MP James Daly informed police of claims made by neighbours that allegedly contradicted Ms Rayner's statement that her property was her main residence.

In early April, The Mail on Sunday also claimed to have seen dozens of social media posts from Ms Rayner between 2010 and 2015, which it said showed her now ex's address was her main property.

Announcing its case had closed, Greater Manchester Police said it had completed "a thorough, carefully considered and proportionate investigation [and] have concluded that no further police action will be taken".

They added: "Matters involving council tax and personal tax do not fall into the jurisdiction of policing.

"GMP has liaised with Stockport Council and information about our investigation has been shared with them. Details of our investigation have also been shared with His Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC)."

A spokesperson from HMRC said they could not comment on individuals due to taxpayer confidentiality law.

Stockport Council also said it had "reviewed and responded to all correspondence relating to this matter", including information received from Greater Manchester Police.

"We have also concluded that no further action will be taken on behalf of the council," the authority said.

What has Angela Rayner said?

Ms Rayner has always insisted she has done nothing wrong, and has received "expert tax advice" to confirm this.

However, she has refused to publish the advice she received - unless her Tory critics do the same.

She has maintained she lived in her own home the whole time, and that the property was where she had raised her son from a previous relationship.

"Every family is different, but it worked for us", she said. She called the claims in Lord Ashcroft's biography "a stream of smears from the usual suspects".

After the story first broke, Ms Rayner told journalists there was "never a question of deceitfulness" or "conspiracy" with regards to her living arrangements, as she outlined her "difficult" family situation at the time.

"I've talked about my upbringing and the difficulties and challenges - getting that house so that I could provide for my son was huge. That was so important to me - I weren't just giving it up."

After police launched their investigation, Ms Rayner said she would "do the right thing and step down" if she was found to have committed a crime.

"I am completely confident I've followed the rules at all times," she said in a statement.

"I have always said that integrity and accountability are important in politics. That's why it's important that this is urgently looked at, independently and without political interference."

Read more:
Angela Rayner's tax affairs - a smear or a real trust problem?

What about her stance on right-to-buy?

While it's not a legal issue, Ms Rayner has also been accused of hypocrisy for using the right-to-buy scheme, which she has previously criticised for giving some tenants "loads and loads of discount".

The right-to-buy scheme was brought in by Margaret Thatcher and allows council or housing association tenants to buy their properties at a big discount, while authorities can only keep a third of the receipts from each sale to build a replacement home.

In 2012, David Cameron increased the discounts offered by the right-to-buy scheme after they were reduced by Tony Blair's Labour government in 1997.

Ms Rayner has promised to review the high discounts introduced in 2012, as well as a review to stop newly-built social homes from being sold off.

She insisted she was not "ashamed" to have bought her council house at a discounted rate through the scheme.

In a post on X after the first Mail on Sunday article was shared, Ms Rayner said buying her home was a "proud moment for me".

"I worked hard, saved and bought it by the book," she said.

"I'm not ashamed - but I am angry that the Tories have since put the dream of a secure home out of reach for so many others."

Ms Rayner has said Labour believes those who live in a council house "should have the opportunity to own their own home".

"But the problem with the right-to-buy was never ordinary people's dreams of owning their own home - it was that council housing stock was sold off and then not replaced," she said.

What has the Labour Party said?

Following Greater Manchester Police's announcement that they would be taking no further action, a Labour Party spokesperson said: "The police have now completed their investigation into claims made by the Conservative Party deputy chairman and have concluded that no further action will be taken.

"Angela cooperated fully with the police investigation throughout. Angela has always been clear that she was not liable for capital gains tax on the sale of the home she owned before she was an MP, that she was properly registered to vote, and paid the appropriate council tax.

"She took expert tax and legal advice which confirms this. This draws a line under the matter."

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer previously said the investigation would "allow a line to be drawn in relation to this matter" and added he was "fully confident that Angela Rayner has not broken the rules".

He also previously said the Conservatives were "chasing a smear" by raising the questions about the deputy leader.

He said his team had seen the legal advice provided to Ms Rayner about her tax affairs.

Shadow foreign secretary David Lammy also told Sky News he was confident Ms Rayner had done "nothing wrong" and had "played by the rules".

What have the Conservatives said?

Defence Secretary Grant Shapps previously accused Ms Rayner of "double standards", and said she had "spent her political career calling people out for exactly the thing that she seems to be doing now".

He also welcomed the police investigation at the time, saying it was "important" that the matter was "looked into properly".