I feel sad about Angela Rayner

[Neededa]

OK, I am left leaning so maybe I am already biased, BUT, I do feel sad that a woman who overcame early issues, who was “proper” working class, who didn’t speak the kings English, but rather with a proper local dialect, and achieved a high office without a single spoon in her working class mouth, has gone.

i do understand that many people will agree with what has happened. I would have been fuming if the story played out the way it had as a different party, and I understand that Angela had to go, BUT as a woman who believes in holding up other women, particularly those who aren’t born to certain families, or have expectations placed on them from word go, I do feel a bit sad this morning.

There was a working class woman in the House of Commons. A working class woman was the deputy prime minister of this country. It is not even 100 years since working class women could vote. I feel sad.

At the end of a sad and difficult day for Angela Rayner, it’s worth noting that Sir Laurie Magnus, Independent Adviser on Ministerial Standards, included in his letter to Starmer the following:

“I believe Ms Rayner has acted with integrity and with a dedicated and exemplary commitment to public service.”

The price was over inflated. The price stated was more than double any other price in that postcode. There are questions to answer here.

She was told she should speak to a specialist tax adviser. She chose to ignore it presumably because she was happy with the ‘you can pay the lower amount’.

Apart from that some more serious questions should be asked around the compensation money for her son’s care. I would really like to read the advice that said she should convert that into ownership of part of the home.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/property/buying-selling/why-angela-rayner-house-more-expensive-neighbours/

as i said. Questions to answer. A|so as i said upthread- I have a disabled child and am trustee of a trust for him. I find her actions to not pass the smell test.

He had access to all the legal stuff and records, he can talk to people involves etc. The person whose being looked into can give staments, he can see all legal documents as well financial records etc. He can speak to 3rd parties if necessary and can get information from institutions like HMRC.

They have to know all the facts and what happened in detail otherwise they won't have the context to decide whether it breached the Ministeral Code. This is pretty standard for all the government ethics advisor cases.

She was the housing minister as well as deputy leader - even though I live in the constituency she represents.
I did not vote for her, I admire how far she has come but knowing that your every move will de dissected - she knew what she was doing
an extra £40k has lost her reputation & job.
good riddance

Maybe it's a better house, maybe it's on a better street, all the evidence from journalists and ethic investigations does show it was £800k. If she likes it and it works with her ex-husband and for nesting, and can afford it, that's not an issue at all. Also it wouldn't be her who did that, it would be the estate agents and person selling the home. She can't get it reduced that much and she can afford it clearly, so I don't she why she'd care about it being inflated. It ticked her and her ex-husband's boxes.

That wasn't the error which broke the code. You have no evidence that she did something untoward concerning pricing of the flat and it wouldn't have been her anyways, she's not selling it.

Why did she lie and say she had taken advice? Conveyancers have a tax advice disclaimer around stamp duty. It is impossible for them to know if you own houses in the U.K. or abroad. It’s a self declaration.

Why didn’t she say she was sorry and tax law is clearly far too complex in this area. And it is not there to trip up normal families. She will review it etc. Or admit she tried to pull a fast one if that is what happened. That is acting with integrity.

Instead she tried to pass the buck to her conveyancer. If you watch the bbc interview clip you can see when she starts lying, it was so obvious.

I don’t understand why it’s said she acted with integrity and has made me question Magnus and the Ministerial Standards.

I must have missed the bit where there’s a different - and less strict - parliamentary code of conduct for female MPs than for male MPs.

But it doesn’t remotely surprise me that a bunch of MN man-haters are perfectly fine with women being held to lower standards than men.

Really? I doubt it. Particularly not in a few days. To judge by the report AR gave him all the written advice she’d received, and probably some sort of statement. I can’t see anything about wider enquiries.

To have any proper idea of what led somebody to do or not do something you’d need full disclosure of all documents, including letters and emails, proper witness statements from everybody involved, including accounts of conversations, and the witnesses would need to give oral evidence under cross-examination.

I’m not saying Magnus’s conclusion about conduct and motive was wrong - and I’m happy to believe it - but it’s hardly definitive.

Every government we've had since covid has been abominable and totally incompetent and self serving and nobody seems to understand the meaning of professionalism.
This means that at the next general election people will think fuck it let's give Reform.a chance and then we'll know what true horror is.
This government needs to get their act together and prevent that from happening before its too late.

It is very sad that a working class girl made good, in high political office, has had to resign.
I totally get you have to be beyond reproach in politics and there was no other option but I think it is very sad.
She had it in her to be the next leader of the labour party and a working class PM would have been groundbreaking.
I am beyond disappointed and totally agree OP, just hoping she can come back from this and it is not the end of her political career.

I don’t want a “girl” - working class or any other class - in political office. Neither do I want a “boy”. To paraphrase wotsit Roy in Succession, She is not a serious person.

This. The advice on the tax owed in this situation is on the govt website re HMRC, any of her advisers could have linked her to it!

She was juggling care of a differently abled child, divorce, buying a flat, roles of housing minister, deputy prime minister and constituency MP. No small wonder she made a mistake.

I agree OP, and I'm getting sad and tired of the general public mood of complaining and mud slinging and constantly bickering.
We ALL need to accentuate the positives of this nation, look for successes in ANYTHING at ANY LEVEL and big them up - not just be vocal with complaints. Praise someone the next time they get it right/give good service/ask for feedback.
There is endless, natural talent here in the UK at every level. We have to get behind it instead of the carping, bitching and back biting.
I am a realist, and fully aware that we have so much to get right in this nation, but if we got behind those (any!) who are doing it for others and spoke up with credit where it's due, the atmosphere WILL change.
Angela Raynor messed up. We know it; she knows it...but she got a heck of a lot of good done for others and used her office well.

I challenge anyone reading this to make a praise in the coming week to someone or something and especially if you have to make a complaint. Balances need tilting positively for all us because life is hard enough.

I agree OP, and I'm getting sad and tired of the general public mood of complaining and mud slinging and constantly bickering.
We ALL need to accentuate the positives of this nation, look for successes in ANYTHING at ANY LEVEL and big them up - not just be vocal with complaints. Praise someone the next time they get it right/give good service/ask for feedback.
There is endless, natural talent here in the UK at every level. We have to get behind it instead of the carping, bitching and back biting.
I am a realist, and fully aware that we have so much to get right in this nation, but if we got behind those (any!) who are doing it for others and spoke up with credit where it's due, the atmosphere WILL change.
Angela Raynor messed up. We know it; she knows it...but she got a heck of a lot of good done for others and used her office well.

I challenge anyone reading this to make a praise in the coming week to someone or something and especially if you have to make a complaint. Balances need tilting positively for all us because life is hard enough.

Here is a Guardian article (archived to avoid the cookie consent on there these days) detailing the result of her calling Tories scum:

https://archive.ph/21n4M

Such a stupid thing to say.

Correct.

In business, we call such people, ‘tourists’.

In which case, she made a previous error of judgement accepting the DPM position, didn’t she?

No one expected her to be 'squeaky clean'! She was simply required to follow the same rules as she very loudly said she expected everyone else to follow. She plainly circumvented those rules quite intentionally in her sale of her ex council house to avoid paying capital gains tax, and she was at best extremely careless in failing to check that she had followed the rules in her more recent purchase. Any ordinary member of the public would have been expected to check and follow these rules, and, like Rayner, would have been at risk of paying interest on the underpayment and potentially also a 'carelessness' fine if he or she failed to do so. Rayner was making in excess of £150k pa, as well as having the use of a grace and favour mansion on which the public pay the council tax. If she couldn't be bothered to check the rules online herself and as I have said in previous posts this wasn't a difficult thing to do, and should have been eminently possible for anyone competent to be a government minister she could easily afford to pay the few hundred pounds to seek the specialist tax advice her conveyancer recommended. Admittedly most members of the public would not be expected to resign from a lucrative portion of their jobs as a result of this sort of carelessness. But you can be quite sure that Rayner herself would have expected any politician from across the aisle who made a similar mistake to resign. Despite her efforts to pin this on her conveyancer, and the efforts of many in this thread to pin it on the media, the only personal responsible for this mess is Rayner herself.

She,s a loud mouth and a bully, class doesnt come into it,theres no class in abandoning your children she knew what she was doing to avoid paying stamp duty… and taking her name from the marital home, her childrens home and by doing so she took £160 grand from the property to pay for a deposit on a 800 grand property to be near her boyfriend.(why 800 grand} She knew what she was doing alright.why does she want a flat at the other end of the country away from her kids. . . To be near her boyfriend.. what happens if the exhubby looking after the kids gets re wed? aye, she,s got her priorities right girls…..

Neighbours say they never see her at the marital home,its the hubby looking after the disabled child

This was the second time she has had issues with the CAT around property she owns.After the first time most people would try to ensure they.weren't placed in a position where the press were able to point at her as not paying the tax.due. She is either arrogant or stupid neither is a good.thing to be as a politician

CGT