Angela Rayner has been cleared by HMRC of “deliberate wrongdoing or carelessness” over her tax affairs – the scandal which prompted her resignation as Deputy PM.
Ms Rayner has settled £40,000 in unpaid stamp duty after initially paying the lower rate, but has not paid any penalty as a result of the investigation, The Guardian has just revealed.
Ms Rayner suggested she may be willing to challenge Sir Keir Starmer for the keys to No10, telling the newspaper she wanted to “play my part”.
She said: “Whatever role I can play, I will keep pushing and pushing hard because I want the people out there at the moment who are really struggling… to know that I’m putting all my energy into fighting for them.”
The Ashton-under-Lyne MP described feeling “bruised” by the scandal as it pushed her disabled son’s personal life into the spotlight.
She also said it gave the impression she was “in it for myself” rather than on the side of working Britons.
As Sir Keir Starmer faces down a possible leadership challenge from five different fronts, Ms Rayner urged the PM to “reflect on” stepping down from his post.
Yesterday, he was forced to have spent the day scrambling to reassure ministers, cautioning that a leadership challenge could “plunge” the party into “chaos”.
Sir Keir held a 16-minute meeting with Health Secretary Wes Streeting – and despite the talks, he is now said to be plotting a resignation from Cabinet to trigger a formal leadership challenge.
Mr Streeting is widely rumoured to be gearing up to face off with Ed Miliband, Andy Burnham, Al Carns and also Ms Rayner for the keys to No10.
Despite being among the frontrunners, the ex-Deputy PM did not rule out endorsing another challenger from Labour’s soft left if they were better placed to win.
She said: “I don’t think it’s a case of each person for themselves, but I do think it’s a case of people seeing how they can pull the party together and have the vision to take us forward.”
However, Ms Rayner insisted she would not be the one to twist the knife into the PM, saying: “I’ve made it clear that I wasn’t going to trigger the Prime Minister – and that I want to see change. I want to see actions, not just words.”
She added: “I’ve said to Keir this is a really significant moment for our party and the country… The pace of change hasn’t been enough for voters to see, and also mistakes have really blown us off course and made voters doubt us.”
More to follow…