Angela Rayner has resigned as UK’s Deputy Prime Minister after an independent ethics investigation into her taxes. In the investigation, Rayner grossly underpaid about £40,000 in stamp duty for her property purchase and investigators said it had breached the ministerial code by not seeking appropriate tax advice according to the report of the Government’s adviser of ministerial standards.
The report found that Rayner acted in good faith but in her resignation letter, Rayner admitted to Prime Minister Keir Starmer she regretted not getting tax advice, noting that she accepted full responsibility for no asking for assistance.
Starmer wrote Rayner a personal note, saying it was not only a personal loss as he regarded her as a trusted friend, but also a political loss. Since Labour came to power in 2024, Rayner’s resignation represented the most damaging resignation by an administration member, out of a total of eight ministerial resignations, not to mention unprompted by cabinet reshuffles.
Rayner’s resignation immediately put in motion a cabinet reshuffle because Deputy Prime Minister and Justice Secretary David Lammy, Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper and Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood, now make UK history in that, for the first time, three women hold top government positions under the Prime Minister.
Rayner will remain in Parliament as a backbencher despite her moral fall, as she rose from working-class to one of the leading figures of the Labour party, but backlash from alternatives party to her resignation stem from her previous accusations of Conservative politicians claiming hypocrisy on Rayner and her taxes.
Lastly, as Rayner has resigned, the Labour Party can now call a deputy leadership election – this opens the door for factions within the party to form alliances to create boundaries within the party ahead of the 2027 general election.
Rayner’s resignation is undoubtedly a personal loss to her, but for Labour it is an even greater challenge as it faces deteriorating poll results and scrutiny as to how it walks the ethical line.
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