Rayner's nemesis quizzed on huge portfolio

NIGEL Farage was quick to call for Angela Rayner to quit over her stamp duty blunder but it emerged that he found his own way of paying less tax on a new home.

- BY NICK SOMMERLAD

Despite the Reform leader saying last year that he had bought a house in Clacton, Essex, where he is MP, it was his partner Laure Ferrari, 46, who shelled out almost £900,000 for the plush home.

As her sole property, she would be liable for nearly £32,000 in stamp duty, according to HMRC's online calculator.

If Farage had bought it himself, it would have cost him at least £75,000 in second home duty - saving £44,000 and leading to claims of hypocrisy over Rayner.

After Rayner quit for saving £40,000 in stamp duty on her home at Hove, Sussex, yesterday, Farage was quizzed as he stepped off the podium after his Reform UK conference speech.