Stockport council and the police are understood to be reviewing whether Ms Rayner claimed a single person’s council tax discount on her former house on Vicarage Road while allowing her brother to live there.
If her brother was living at the property with her, as she claims, she would not have been eligible for the discount because there can only be one adult resident in the property.
It also raises the question of whether Mr Rayner was claiming the discount at his Lowndes Lane home, to which he would not have been entitled if Ms Rayner was living there with him.
It is not known whether any of the family claimed the discount. The council has so far declined to say whether it has handed over any documents to police.
Alongside the council and capital gains tax claims, Ms Rayner has also been accused of wrongly declaring her permanent address on the electoral register, which is an offence. After they married in 2010, she re-registered the births of her two sons giving the Lowndes Lane address as their home.
The police investigation centres on the fact that she was registered on the electoral roll at the Vicarage Road house but is alleged to have been living at her husband’s home at the time.
At Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday, Rishi Sunak, the Prime Minister, told Sir Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, that he should spend less time focusing on Liz Truss’s recently-released book and more time reading Ms Rayner’s tax advice.
Ms Rayner has said she will “do the right thing and step down” if she is found to have committed a criminal offence. She claims to have taken expert advice to “make sure she hadn’t done anything wrong” and said the advice categorically stated that she did not owe any tax on her Vicarage Road property.
William Turner is a seasoned U.K. correspondent with a deep understanding of domestic affairs. With a passion for British politics and culture, he provides insightful analysis and comprehensive coverage of events within the United Kingdom.
