Rayner accused of plotting ‘chicken run’ to safe seat

Angela Rayner has been accused of plotting a “chicken run” to a safer seat on the south coast after polls showed she was likely to lose to Nigel Farage’s party.

Richard Tice, Reform UK’s deputy leader, said the Housing Secretary was giving herself the “option” to flee the North by buying a home in ultra-safe Hove.

The Tories also suggested Ms Rayner might be laying the groundwork to abandon the North for the south coast ahead of the next election.

A series of recent polls have suggested that, if the next election were held now, the working-class seat which she has held since 2015 would fall to Reform.

Hove and Portslade, where she has bought her new flat, is, by contrast, a liberal enclave and one of the safest Labour constituencies in the country.

It is held by Peter Kyle, the Science Secretary, who increased his majority over the Greens at the last election to almost 20,000 votes.

Mr Tice said: “Angela Rayner is so terrified of losing her seat to Reform at the next election, she is buying herself an option to take on the Greens in Brighton.

“The ultimate plant-based chicken run.”

Ms Rayner has been strongly rumoured to be planning a leadership bid, with even Cabinet ministers doubting Sir Keir Starmer will lead Labour into the next election.

Labour insiders have discussed the possibility she could seek a safer seat at the next election, with Brighton Pavilion, held by the Greens, also floated.

It came as Ms Rayner faced questions over whether she benefited from a “prime residence” capital gains tax exemption on her former Ashton property.

Known as private residence relief, the rule applies only to main homes and offers a 100 per cent relief on capital gains tax, which is paid on any increase in value.

Ms Rayner might have made use of the relief when disposing of her share of her constituency home earlier this year, when she removed her name from the deeds of the property, tax experts said.

Ms Rayner might also have benefited from a separate capital gains tax exemption which protects divorcing couples transferring assets, they added.

The Tories said she now had additional questions to answer about her increasingly complex affairs.

Her housing arrangements have come under growing public scrutiny after it emerged that she saved £40,000 in stamp duty on her new seaside flat.

She bought it for £800,000 after disposing of her share of her constituency home earlier this year, telling the tax authorities it was her main residence.

At the same time, she told the local authority it was her second home for council tax purposes and confirmed she was paying double council tax, which now applies in some council areas on second and holiday homes.

However, the Deputy Prime Minister still lists the house in her Ashton-under-Lyne constituency, near Manchester, as her family home.

A Labour source dismissed Reform’s claims, stating: “From the party whose leader has stood in seven different seats, this is some brass neck.

“Angela will take on anyone who wants to challenge her, and stand on her record of serving the community she is proud to represent in Parliament.”

But Labour figures have been openly condemning her actions for the first time.

On Saturday, Graham Stringer, a veteran backbencher, became the first Labour MP to publicly criticise Ms Rayner over the housing row.

He warned the “optics” of the Housing Secretary’s actions did not “look good” – particularly as the Government prepared for the autumn Budget.

Matthew Torbitt, a former Labour adviser, told Times Radio that she needed to be “even cleaner than clean” over her housing arrangements.

“I think you have to be open that there’s a potential charge of hypocrisy when you’re the housing minister, you want to be building houses,” he said.

The Prime Minister had been said to be preparing a reshuffle of junior ministerial ranks, but it is thought to have put the plans on ice while the row plays out.

No 10 has never confirmed a reshuffle was planned and is understood to have a full grid of announcements for next week, including on key education pledges.

‘Rayner must come clean’

Mike Wood MP, the shadow Cabinet Office minister, said: “Angela Rayner needs to come clean on whether she has flipped her homes to line up running in Brighton and Hove in the next election.

“It’s not credible for her to tell the council in Tameside it’s her primary home when she’s bolted and living elsewhere.”

The idea she was planning to launch a fresh political bid in Hove was raised by her own constituents in Ashton on Friday, some of whom told The Telegraph that they had not seen the Deputy Prime Minister in years.

In contrast, her new neighbours in Brighton on Saturday said she had been spotted at local hotspots, with one adding she had “been around a lot”.

She is now facing an ethics investigation over whether she paid the correct tax on her various homes.

On Friday night, the Tories referred Ms Rayner to Sir Laurie Magnus, the Prime Minister’s independent adviser on ministers’ interests, saying her behaviour had been “unethical”. They accused her of “hypocritical tax avoidance by a minister who supports higher taxes on family homes, high-value homes and second homes”.

Sir Laurie will decide in the coming days whether to launch an investigation.

The Deputy Prime Minister did not say whether she had benefited from the capital gains tax relief when questioned on Saturday evening.

[Source: Daily Telegraph]