Westminster Rocked as Rayner Resigns, Starmer Reshuffles Cabinet

Labour has lost Angela Rayner as Deputy PM, Deputy Leader, and Housing Minister following her resignation.

- ANTONIA FILMER

It is all change on the Westminster political scene this past week. Labour has lost Angela Rayner as Deputy Prime Minister, Deputy Leader, and Housing Minister following her resignation, prompted by her failure to pay the correct amount of stamp duty on a property she sold to a Trust established for her disabled son. The stamp duty had been increased by the Labour government in 2024.

In a separate scandal, Rayner and her lawyers are also suspected of inflating the value of her former constituency property to raise enough funds to buy an apartment in the beachside resort of Hove. Ms Rayner has long been a close aide to Keir Starmer, and her departure is a personal blow to the Prime Minister. As Deputy, she was a useful equaliser between the soft left and the Blairites, yet always loyal to the PM's agenda.

Rayner remains unpredictable on the back benches as MP for Ashton-under-Lyne, although it is rumoured she would like to contest a safer seat as ReformUK is anticipated to take Ashton. Meanwhile, questions loom over what penalty HMRC will impose for this carelessness, given Rayner's career-long advocacy against tax evasion and for higher taxes on the wealthy.