Is Angela Raynor a liar or is it all anti Labour media bias?

[CormorantStrikesBack]

I’m well aware how anti Labour a lot of the main stream media seem to be so I wasn’t paying much attention previously to all the stuff about how she should have paid capital gains tax on her house, etc. she was adamant that she didn’t need to.

So it seems like she said it was her main residence so not liable for capital gains tax. But her husband and kids lived in a house a short distance away apparently for the first five years of their marriage which is unusual. A neighbour who lived next to her “husband’s” house said it was the main family home and Angela definitely lived there.

I’ll be sad if she has lied. Always thought she was on the side of the ordinary person. I guess the police/tax man might have a hard time proving anything though regardless of the neighbour’s statement. If all bills, etc were in the individual names there’s no evidence.

Are we talking about the 2008/9 expenses scandal?

Pretty much.

Are you talking about the 2020 covid procurement ‘scandal’?

For the most part yes but with a few later offenders such as Jared O'Mara.

The latter, along with Fiona Onsanya, was what I'd term an accidental MP. By that I mean people who got into the commons following a snap election where normal selection process was ignored or compressed so there were candidates who shouldn't have made the cut. And then, in 17, Labour, who everybody thought would be wiped out, did far, far better and gained seats.

But Jeremy Corbyn. Curry. Keirs beer. Donkey field. More smear 🍺

Why the inverted Commas for the COVID procurement scandal? Crime, I guess, would be a better word than scandal...

Because there isn’t a single case in which detailed examination of government conduct has led to a finding of unlawfulness. The Good Law Project went after what it believed to be the best cases. Every single one failed.

If there was fraud - and it seems hard to believe there wasn’t any - on all the evidence it was fraud by applicants, not by the government.

As I said earlier, there’s always fraud against public funds. No government can change that.

What’s your reason for believing that covid procurement was a criminal scandal by the government?

Because I am a procurement law specialist and I know how these exercises are meant to be run

The tories are desperate. She embodies everything they hate. They are focusing on her (directly and through their media buds) to try and divert and draw fire.

Did you know about this from pp?

Because there isn’t a single case in which detailed examination of government conduct has led to a finding of unlawfulness. The Good Law Project went after what it believed to be the best cases. Every single one failed.

Poor Douglas Hogg…..it’s not his fault he had to have a house in his constituency. Owning that Manor House against his will was costing him a fortune….of course it was only fair that the tax payers paid to have the moat cleaned. 😆.

True story - as a kid I lived about six houses away from the Hall with the infamous moat. Douglas still lives there, I still see him around and about sometimes. It was a very nice house, I’ve been inside a few times. It actually wasn’t even in his constituency, but I guess close enough to count.

Like any politician she only lies when her mouth moves.

Hogg of course is the son of Quintin Hogg, late Lord Chancellor in seventies and again in Thatcher's first term.

DH is now in the Lords himself.

It's just more of the same Tory desperation, distraction and misogyny.🙄

Is that DH as in Douglas Hogg or your husband?

If the latter, I’m impressed, Your Ladyship.

Do you believe they wouldn’t have raised the same issue if it were a man then?

When Quintin used to come and stay the local police would set up a 24/7 patrol car parked at the one public road entrance to the village. This was in the height of the IRA. Used to make me laugh as there were two perfectly drivable farm tracks to the house which would have bypassed the police post. I’m sure the IRA would have known how to read a map and to be honest the police car arrival was the biggest indicator that he was in residence.

@CormorantStrikesBack For most of the eighties I either worked in, or went to at lunchtime to use the staff canteen, the Law Courts on the Strand. Zilch evident security, quite why the IRA never took the opportunity to walk in with a small pistol and pick off Lord Denning or Lord Lane, then the Lord Chief.

Mind you Lane was WW2 veteran as a pilot and probably forbid any such thing as evident security as a display of courage or whatever.

There’s definitely an issue with Angela Rayners property dealings imo. She bought her council house at a discount although it seems she was living elsewhere. She then sold at a profit, shouldn’t have been eligible for prr but paid no cgt.

the idea that it’s some sort of “right wing conspiracy” is ridiculous. Documentary evidence has been shared.

all of our politicians should be held to a high standard, whether we agree with them or think they are “privileged” or not.

Another issue with Angela Rayners conduct is that she intends to end right to buy when she has benefited from it. I agree with the policy but do think it’s hypocritical from her especially as it’s likely she wasn’t living in her house when she bought it.

It's not an either/or issue. It does seem unfair, I suppose, that there seems to be more of an expectation that Tories may bend rules and be on the take, but Labour, as Blair suggested, needed to be purer than pure on entering Government in 1997.

The wording AR put on twitter a few weeks ago didn't fully explain things: she said she 'maintained' a separate property to her husband, but she didn't say that she continued to live in her own house throughout the period in question. I wonder if the issue would have pretty much gone away if she'd said something along the lines of that she'd made a mistake back then, and would now pay any tax due.

The police issue is the one about giving incorrect info on the electoral form, which is possibly more serious?, but I guess we see what develops now it's being looked at again.

No, I don't think they would.

That AR is a woman is a big part of the misogynist hate campaign she has faced from the Tory Party. She was investigated and cleared. Now she is being investigated again at the request of the Deputy of the Conservatives.

It's nasty, it's desperate and it's a witch hunt but they get away with it because she's a woman and it appeals to part of their electorate.

This is the sort of thing that happens where these things are allowed to run and illustrates why AR might be better to publish all the details.

The facts so far as I can extract them, mainly from Dan Neidle's account, are as follows:

She bought the house in 2007. I've not seen any evidence that she was not entitled to do that under the Right to Buy rules. Has anything been published to cast doubt on that?

She married Rayner in 2010 and around that time moved in with him while her house was occupied by her brother rent free.

There may, or may not, have been a chargeable gain when she sold.

There's a separate issue, highlighted by a neighbouring MP, is where and at which addresses she was on the electoral register. AIUI you can be registered to vote at more than one property. Trouble starts if you vote twice in (eg) Parliamentary Elections or in the same council for local authority.

@Bromptotoo She had two houses with her husband whilst they were married. Marriage makes all the difference. So her second house was chargeable for CGT as she was not living there. Married couples can only have one house free from CGT. . So between marrying and selling the house, they owned two houses. She should have sold it before she married because presumably it was her primary residence then.

She milked the rules to get what she wanted at a discount and now wants to pull up the drawbridge so others cannot do it.

@TizerorFizz I understand that marriage makes a difference; one main (ie CGT exempt) residence between two of you.

She bought her council house, met and married Rayner and moved in with him. Some time after that she sold it. At that point there may have been a chargeable gain assuming her hubby's home was the main residence.

As to pull up the drawbridge we need to do something to stop houses built for social rent being sold at a discount. In some cases almost before the 'new paint' smell has gone.

Right to Buy was, in my opinion, never defendable unless each house sold was replaced by a new one. But the time to implement that was 40+ years ago.

So completely unlike attacks on Theresa May, Priti Patel, Suella Braverman, Liz Truss or any other Tory woman?

Or Margaret Thatcher, or Gillian Shepherd or Edwina Currie or any other female Tory MP or minister from the past?

FFS.

@Bromptotoo If you are married you cannot have two “main” residences. It’s one or the other. She was probably trying to flip snd pretending to live at her “council” home. Again, this is deceit and not acceptable. Most people understand MPs should not do it.