Starmer accuses the PM of 'smears' in Rayner tax row

Sir Keir Starmer mounted his strongest defence of Angela Rayner yesterday, accusing “billionaire” Rishi Sunak of “smearing a working-class woman” during the ongoing row about her former living arrangements.

- ZOE GRUNEWALD, ARCHIE MITCHELL

As the police confirmed they are investigating multiple allegations about Ms Rayner’s former council house, the Labour leader accused the PM himself of having used “schemes to avoid millions of pounds in tax”.

Confronting Mr Sunak at Prime Minister’s Questions, Sir Keir said: “We’ve got a billionaire prime minister and a billionaire colleague [Lord Ashcroft], both of whose families have used schemes to avoid millions of pounds in tax, smearing a workingclass woman.” The PM had urged Sir Keir to spend less time reading Liz Truss’s new book and more looking into his deputy’s tax advice.

The exchange came as a former Tory minister joined high-profile figures defending Ms Rayner in the deepening row over the sale of her former council home. Amid ongoing questions about whether she avoided paying the right tax or had correctly registered at the correct address, Nick Boles, who was an MP for nine years, said the attacks were “one of the most grotesque spectacles of hypocrisy I have ever witnessed”.

Former Conservative MP Matthew Parris also condemned what he called “the hounding” of the Labour MP, dubbing it “outrageous: brutal, snobbish and completely out of proportion to any mistake she may (or may not) have made”. Ex-regional chief crown prosecutor Nazir Afzal also said that “based on what’s in the public domain”, the CPS would take no action against Ms Rayner.