Angela Rayner cleared by HMRC as Starmer faces leadership revolt
Former Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner could have a shot at taking her boss’s job.
She said today that HMRC has cleared her of any wrongdoing over her tax affairs, a saga widely seen as her biggest roadblock to becoming PM.
Rayner stood down as Keir Starmer’s deputy in September after admitting she underpaid stamp duty on her £800,000 seaside flat in Hove.
The Ashton-under-Lyne MP did not rule out putting herself forward as Starmer fights to save his leadership after the disastrous local election results.
Rayner told The Guardian: ‘I’ll play my part in doing everything we possibly can to deliver the change, because it’s not a personal ambition, I know the difference it makes.’
The Chancellor spoke out on the steps of Downing Street after new figures showed the economy grew 0.6% in the first quarter of 2026.
She said that growth ‘is only possible because of the economic stability that we have brought back to our economy.’
She warned: ‘We shouldn’t put that at risk by plunging the country into chaos.’
Angela Rayner has said HMRC has cleared her of wrongdoing over her tax affairs.
Rayner failed to pay adequate taxes when she bought a seaside flat in Hove in May 2025.
She stepped down as deputy prime minister in September after an independent ethics adviser concluded she had breached the code of conduct for a cabinet minister.
But she told The Guardian that tax officials were satisfied there was no tax avoidance.
She added to ITV News: ‘They’ve said that there wasn’t any wrongdoing and that I didn’t try to avoid paying tax or I wasn’t careless in the way in which I conducted myself at the time when I was in government.’
In November the New Statesman reported that someone had registered a website with the address WesForLeader.com.
Code appears to show the sitemap locked behind a password includes options to donate and how to get involved in any potential leadership bid.
But Streeting’s team denies being behind the website. ‘It’s absolutely nothing to do with Wes,’ a source told Novara Media who uncovered the code. ‘It’s the oldest trick in the book.’
???? The UK is truly one of a kind.
— Nicki Minaj (@NICKIMINAJ) May 13, 2026
They will portray her in film & TV one day…just like they did with
Margaret Thatcher. https://t.co/T7E1gVsbUa
In November the New Statesman reported that someone had registered a website with the address WesForLeader.com.
Code appears to show the sitemap locked behind a password includes options to donate and how to get involved in any potential leadership bid.
But Streeting’s team denies being behind the website. ‘It’s absolutely nothing to do with Wes,’ a source told Novara Media who uncovered the code. ‘It’s the oldest trick in the book.’
Politics Editor
Read more similar news:
Comments:
comments powered by Disqus
