Angela Rayner‘s housing arrangements came under fresh attack after she was accused of trying to dodge her own council tax surcharge on her grace-and-favour home.
The former Deputy Prime Minister is said to have belatedly had the second home charge on Admiralty House paid for her by the Government only after being contacted about it by The Mail on Sunday.
The row comes with Ms Rayner said to be already plotting her political comeback after being forced to quit the Cabinet in September for underpaying stamp duty on her new seaside property.
In April Westminster Council imposed a 100 per cent council tax surcharge on second homes, a move overseen by Ms Rayner’s then department, which meant her £2,034 bill on the flat she occupied in the £18million Whitehall property should have doubled.
That month, Tory chairman Kevin Hollinrake wrote to Ms Rayner to ask whether she counted Admiralty House as her primary or secondary residence. At that point she was still living part-time in her Ashton-under-Lyne constituency and was in the process of buying her flat in Hove.
Mr Hollinrake was told only that her ‘council tax responsibility’ was ‘properly discharged’.
The following month the Mail on Sunday contacted Ms Rayner to ask the same question, and published a report on June 8 which questioned her arrangements.
Former Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner (pictured) is under fresh attack after she was accused of trying to dodge her own council tax surcharge on her grace-and-favour home
Ms Rayner lived in Winston Churchill’s old Westminster home, Admiralty House (pictured above)
According to Mr Hollinrake only now was the Cabinet Office machine swinging into action to pay the surcharge for Ms Rayner.
In August it finally admitted that Admiralty House had been classed as a second home.
And on October 21 it told him the second homes premium on Admiralty had ‘paid in full in a one-off full payment in July 2025’.
In a further answer, on November 20, the Cabinet Office said that Westminster Council was not told that it was Ms Rayner’s second home until May.
Now, in a letter to Keir Starmer, Mr Hollinrake says he is ‘writing to you following new evidence that proves Angela Rayner broke the law whilst in post as a minister, broke the Ministerial Code, and that Parliament has been misled’.
He adds: ‘The new tax premium was payable and liable from April 1, not May. Council tax bills are issued in March and then have to be paid upfront.
‘A taxpayer cannot just choose to pay their bill months later. It is manifestly clear that this July bill was a retrospective payment to address the failure to declare and pay the full tax liability from April 1, 2025. This was a cover-up.’
He added: ‘From July 2024, Angela Rayner was the Secretary of State in charge of council tax. Her department issued guidance on the second homes council premium in November 2024. It is not credible she did not know there was a new tax surcharge on second homes. The legal liability for paying council tax is with the resident.’
A source close to Ms Rayner said: ‘The Government is responsible for liaising with Westminster Council and administering council tax on Admiralty House, not Angela, and there is no suggestion she did anything other than properly discharge her own responsibilities as and when required.’
A Government spokesman said: ‘As the property was a second residence, the Government was responsible for paying the Council Tax on Admiralty House, not the former Deputy Prime Minister, in line with long-standing precedent under successive governments.
‘The Government Property Agency paid the full amount as soon as the invoice was received from Westminster City Council.’