It always seems trite to focus on ‘the optics’ of a political scandal rather than the substance of one, but the swirling row about Angela Rayner’s complex property affairs looks utterly disastrous, both for her and the government of which she is nominally the second-in-charge.
After a week of headlines about her purchase of an £800,000 flat in fashionable Hove – hundreds of miles from her east Manchester parliamentary seat – the Deputy Prime Minister has been forced to concede she had not paid the full amount of stamp duty owed.
Rayner’s much-publicised living arrangements, dividing her time between her central London grace-and-favour flat, her domestic home in Ashton-under-Lyne and her new flat, is given added complexity as she and her ex-husband share caring arrangements for their children, including a disabled son.
Wise, perhaps, for people without disabled children to withhold judgment about people who have – and it is perfectly feasible that Angela Rayner has followed the expert advice she received, which led her to underpay the correct amount of stamp duty, to the letter.
It seems plausible that the government’s standards adviser, Sir Laurie Magnus, might see it that way. But that must be a hope rather than an expectation. For now, Angela Rayner is in big trouble.
She is not just a mother trying to juggle her domestic responsibilities; she is the deputy prime minister in a Labour government. One that presides over a divided, moribund country having won as little as 34% of the popular vote in last year’s general election.
To state the obvious; two-thirds of voters did not back Labour, with the government bequeathed the worst in-tray since Clement Attlee inherited the smoking ruins of post-war Britain.
Everything is going to be hard for this government. Growing the economy. Improving public services. Dealing with a public debt mountain. Not to mention the small matter of the spectre of global Armageddon. More prosaically, Labour is likely to drop to third place in future opinion polls. The effect on party morale will be severe.
So, Labour ministers would be wise to adorn themselves in sackcloth and camelhair, while they wail and self-flagellate. Their behaviour is under the microscope like never before. Indeed, if Angela Rayner wanted to do herself a favour, she would have spent more time behind her ministerial desk throughout the summer break, rather than floating around in a rubber ring on the Brighton beachside.
Yesterday also saw confirmation of a November 28 Budget. Already, the slow drumbeats mean its going to be a painful day for Rachel Reeves, with more tax rises pencilled in. Her speech will have to find crumbs of optimism against a backdrop of anaemic growth, record gilt yields, ‘sticky’ inflation and interest rates and higher energy costs.
Moreover, the international climate – US tariffs, foreign wars and a flat eurozone – mean that she remains at the mercy of events, heaping pressure on her as the government’s political position continues to erode.
To see a Labour DPM buying a posh flat in one of the most desirable neighbourhoods in the country while not paying the tax due, is toxic. As to what her constituents in Ashton-under-Lyne (where 39% of children grow up in poverty) make of it all is, well, moot.
The behaviour of government ministers in their private affairs has an impact in their political lives and on the fortunes of the government. Angela Rayner is an attractive politician for overcoming a hard early life and for being a genuine character in an age of dull, robotic politicians. It would be a terrible shame, both for her and the government if this stupid, unforced error becomes her last.
But as they used to say about those injudicious financial institutions before the 2008 crash, she isn’t too big to fail.
Tags: Angela Rayner, crisis, ethics, Labour government, Stamp Duty
