Angela Rayner is set to earn a five-figure sum as the keynote speaker at an estate agents’ conference this summer – just months after she was forced to quit the Cabinet over her property dealings.
The former Deputy Prime Minister is booked to speak at the £200-a-head ‘propertymark one’ event in June.
It emerged with Ms Rayner still awaiting the result of an HMRC inquiry into the tax row that led to her resignation last year over claims she failed to pay a £40,000 stamp duty bill on her new £800,000 flat in Hove.
She quit as Deputy PM and Housing Secretary last September over the row although allies have since claimed that she will be cleared by the inquiry for making an ‘inadvertent error’.
The sum for her speaking gig could help to pay that bill.
Last night, Tory party chairman Kevin Hollinrake took aim at Ms Rayner’s speaking engagement.
He told the Mail on Sunday: ‘Only in the world of the champagne socialism could someone resign in disgrace as Housing Secretary over not paying their property taxes and then pop-up weeks later earning thousands for a star turn at a property conference.’
According to advance publicity for Ms Rayner’s speech, she will tell estate agents about the ‘challenges of leadership and decision-making in complex environments’.
Former Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner pictured leaving 10 Downing Street after attending the weekly Cabinet meeting while still in the role last year
Tory party chairman Kevin Hollinrake pictured speaking outside the BBC Broadcasting House in 2024
The conference, in London’s Excel Centre, is billed as ‘not just an event – it’s an experience’.
There will also be an ‘after party’, ticketed at £75-a-head.
One Labour insider joked that if Ms Rayner attends that party, she can demonstrate how to make her famous ‘venom’ cocktail comprised of a bottle of vodka, a bottle of Southern Comfort whiskey, ten bottles of blue WKD and a litre of pure orange juice.
Ms Rayner was contacted for comment.