Rayner faces possible £40,000 stamp duty bill, warn experts

Angela Rayner faces having to pay tens of thousands of pounds more in stamp duty if tax officials judge she incorrectly paid the lower rate on her Hove flat, experts have said.

- Kiran Stacey

The deputy prime minister could be given an additional tax bill if officials judge she paid too little stamp duty when she bought her £800,000 property in East Sussex earlier this year, they said.

Rayner has been under pressure to explain more about her property arrangements for several weeks amid accusations that she might have avoided tax by classifying different properties as her main residence.

For council tax purposes, she has classified her Ashton house as her main residence, thereby avoiding a £2,000 bill on her grace-and-favour apartment in London. But she has since put the constituency home into a trust, before declaring the Hove flat as her sole dwelling at the time of purchase.