Angela Rayner to be interviewed under caution as police continue probe into council tax

Angela Rayner is set to be interviewed under caution by police in the next few weeks as part of an ongoing probe into her tax affairs.

It's understood that Greater Manchester Police have reached out to Rayner in order to arrange an interview at an as-yet-unspecified date and time to discuss whether she should have paid capital gains tax on the sale of her former council house in Stockport.

An interview will most likely take place at a police station in Manchester - where the Labour Deputy Leader would be questioned under caution - though Rayner could also agree to a police interview at a another location.

Rayner's spokesman declined to comment on Sunday, highlighting the Labour line that the party would not give a "running commentary" on the ongoing investigation.

Angela Rayner

Greater Manchester Police also declined to comment, and said the service had "no updates to pass on".

But it's also understood that police have written to the MP's Ashton-under-Lyne constituency office to arrange an interview.

Though a police inquiry had been called off, the case was reopened when the Deputy Conservative Chairman and MP for Bury North, James Daly, requested that GMP investigate "certain matters...regarding certain things".

Daly had told Sky News: "I don't want to comment on a police investigation - the police are investigating these matters and I want to allow them to do that without me, as a politician, commenting on what they should do or what they shouldn't do."

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Sir Keir Starmer and Angela Rayner

Police inquiries centre on a house in Stockport, with authorities investigating whether Rayner had wrongly declared her permanent address on the electoral roll - a criminal offence.

Questions also remain on whether Rayner paid the correct amount of tax when she sold the property, a former council house on Vicarage Road.

She sold the property for £127,500, making a £48,500 profit, after buying it at a 25 per cent discount through the "right to buy" scheme for £79,000 eight years earlier.

If this was her main address, as she has claimed, she would not have had to pay capital gains tax (CGT) on the profit.

But if she had been primarily living at her husband's address at Lowndes Lane, also in Stockport, and had not made any major improvements to her property in the time that she owned it, she would have been liable to pay, at most, an estimated £3,500.

Last month, Rayner put out a strongly-worded statement which read: "I’ve repeatedly said I would welcome the chance to sit down with the appropriate authorities, including the police and HMRC, to set out the facts and draw a line under this matter. I am completely confident I’ve followed the rules at all times.

"I have always said that integrity and accountability are important in politics. That’s why it’s important that this is urgently looked at, independently and without political interference.

I make no apologies for having held Conservative ministers to account in the past. Indeed, the public would rightly expect me to do so as a Deputy Leader of the Opposition.

"We have seen the Tory Party use this playbook before - reporting political opponents to the police during election campaigns to distract from their record. I will say as I did before - if I committed a criminal offence, I would of course do the right thing and step down. The British public deserves politicians who know the rules apply to them.

"The questions raised relate to a time before I was an MP and I have set out my family’s circumstances and taken expert tax and legal advice. I look forward to setting out the facts with the relevant authorities at the earliest opportunity."