I couldn’t help chuckling yesterday when some gossip from No 10 revealed that Keir Starmer – our Lord Protector – had grumpily shut down his staff’s attempts to sing “Happy Birthday”. After all, it was just such a scene that did it for Boris Johnson. No one remembers “cake-gate” more than Starmer as he relentless exploited the hysteria to oust his nemesis. Of course today, the knives are out for Keir after his disastrous poll showings after just one year in the job. It is no secret that Angela Rayner, his deputy, has long had her eye on his job.
But a bodged property transaction must surely put paid to her ambitions. Rayner now admits “underpaying” the Exchequer by up to £40,000, and of course, to the voting public, the error looks a lot like tax avoidance.
After all, is this not the same Angela Rayner who was the Chief Inquisitor in Labour’s witch hunt to find “Tory Sleaze”? Did she not herself stand – when in opposition – at the dispatch box and demand an inquiry into an alleged £15,000 discrepancy in Boris Johnson’s gift declarations, an amount less than half of what she is accused of ‘overlooking’? Did she herself not stand before the national press and announce she would “stop the rot” in Westminster? Did she not pledge to create “a new body with stronger powers to push for sanctions against those who break the rules”?
Ironic then that she has now had to admit she significantly “underpaid” on stamp duty herself, on an £800,000 seaside flat, a second home.
This comes after Labour’s Chancellor “Rachel From Accounts”, has been working overtime to come up with novel new tax ideas, including a speculative new tax on property. Since coming to power in 2024, they have introduced no less than a dozen new taxes and hikes, including contentious measures such as VAT on private school fees, a new Inheritance Tax on family farms, and increases in employers’ National Insurance.
The party of tax cannot have someone in a leadership position – ‘Housing Secretary’, no less! – who appears to the public to have avoided a massive tax bill. After all, Boris Johnson’s position became untenable when Labour convinced the public that someone bringing in a cake on his birthday constituted an “office party” – forbidden under Covid rules. Rayner herself was one of the witches on the hunt.
Starmer, the Prime Minister, has bizarrely defended Rayner. Would anyone be surprised if tomorrow, or next week, he pulled one of his famous 5-point U-turns and sacked her? Does he really have any other choice?
PS: Rayner short-changed the Exchequer almost enough to pay for the accommodation of one illegal migrant!
