‘Landlady’ Angela Rayner’s former council house mystery deepens

Neighbours at Angela Rayner’s former council house have claimed that the Labour shadow housing secretary was its ‘landlady’ – and they only remember seeing her once, the Daily Mail reports.

That was during a heated dispute involving a football and a broken window.

Neighbours say they only saw Ms Rayner’s brother at the property as a police look set to investigate why she has given two different addresses before becoming an MP in official documents.

Ms Rayner has denied accusations of ‘hypocrisy’ over selling the semi-detached property for a £48,500 profit in 2015 – eight years after buying it under the Right-to-Buy (RTB) scheme.

Labour has said it will consider scrapping or changing the rules of RTB should it come to power.

‘There definitely weren’t any children there’

The mother of the boy who broke a window told the Mail: “Her brother Darren was living there on his own at that point, there definitely weren’t any children there.

“It was just a single pane of glass, it would only have cost about £50 to replace, which we were happy to do. Our son hadn’t done it on purpose, it was just a freak accident.”

She added: “Another neighbour had it boarded up, and Darren was very reasonable about it all. But he said he needed to speak to his landlady, who turned out to be Angela Rayner.

“I went to the same school as her, so I knew who she was, but I’d certainly never seen her in our street before.

“She said she needed to get involved because her brother wasn’t strong enough to stand up for himself.”

The neighbour said: “She came round banging on the door, demanding we pay around £250 for it to be repaired. When we refused, she threatened to take us to court.”

The woman’s husband said: “We refused to pay what she was asking for because there was no way the repair would have cost that much.

“She was just so obnoxious, she must have visited four or five times, demanding money and saying: ‘I’ll see you in court’.”

Why she had registered to vote at the semi-detached house

Ms Rayner denies any wrongdoing over selling her former home but is facing questions over why she had registered to vote at the semi-detached house – while giving her former husband Mark Rayner’s address a mile away when re-registering their sons’ births following their 2010 marriage.

The Daily Mail highlights that the confusion is significant because voters must, under electoral rules, register at their permanent home address.

The newspaper points out that anyone who knowingly provides false information about their home address could face conviction and a prison sentence.

I’ve never been a ‘landlady’

After Ms Rayner was contacted by the Daily Mail, she wrote on X, formerly Twitter: “I’ve never been a ‘landlady’.”

The MP is also facing questions over whether she should have paid capital gains tax when her house was sold if it wasn’t her main residence – an allegation she denies.

Posting a thread on X, Ms Rayner wrote: “I owned my own home, lived there, paid the bills there and was registered to vote there, prior to selling the house in 2015. I’ve never been a ‘landlady’, owned a property portfolio or been a non-dom.

“As with the majority of ordinary people who sell their own homes, I was not liable for capital gains tax because it was my home and the only one I owned.

“My husband already owned his own home independently. We mutually decided to maintain our existing residences to reflect our circumstances.

“For all the unhealthy interest taken in my family by Lord Ashcroft and his friends, there is no suggestion any rules have been broken.”

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