Angela Rayner may have done nothing wrong, but she still can't win

Here we are again, talking about Angela Rayner’s exciting housing arrangements . As the Government prepares to jump into the cold water of a bracing autumn, the Deputy Prime Minister has diverted attention to a subject the Starmer government has already found damaging – namely, the perception that it exudes double standards on its approach to taxation, the privileges of politics, and personal gain.

As Parliament returns this week, the Opposition can harry Rayner – whose day job is being in charge of housing and communities and the difficult trade-offs that involves for alleged “inappropriate” tax avoidance – after she changed designations of titles, deeds and nominations of her primary residence, with the net effect of saving stamp duty on the purchase of a nice new flat in Hove.

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