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No 10 says Starmer ‘kept updated’ as Rayner got legal briefing on her tax problem, but ‘final advice’ only arrived on WednesdayDowning Street has said that Angela Rayner only got “final advice” saying that she had underpaid stamp duty on her Hove flat on Wednesday morning.But it has also said that Keir Starmer was “kept updated” about the steps that she was taking to clarify her position.It has now emerged that on Friday evening Rayner instructed a KC to review her position in relation to the stamp duty she should have paid when she bought the flat.On Monday evening Rayner received a draft initial opinion. But that was not the final advice, and the KC asked for further information.At that point the court order was still in place restricting what Rayner could say about the trust set up for her disabled son (which affected the stamp duty liability), although she could discuss it with her KC. On Tuesday evening that court order was lifted.And on Wednesday morning Rayner received the final legal opinion saying that she had underpaid her stamp duty. At that point she referred herself to the PM’s ethics adviser, Sir Laurie Magnus.There have been suggestions that Keir Starmer falsely suggested that Rayner had done nothing wrong when in fact he knew there was a problem.At the Downing Street lobby briefing this morning the PM’s spokesperson did not accept that. The spokesperson would not say what Rayner was told in in the initial legal opinion on Monday, or at what point Starmer realised she had not paid her full stamp duty liability.Instead, the spokesperson just said:
The prime minister was kept updated on the steps that the deputy prime minister was taking, as was appropriate, and as soon as that final legal was received by the deputy prime minister on Wednesday morning, she immediately took steps to self-refer herself to the IA [independent adviser], and she updated the prime minister on the legal advice at the earliest opportunity as well.
Starmer has been criticised for telling Radio 5 Live on Monday that those briefing against Rayner were “wrong”. But the spokesperson said that, as the transcript showed, Starmer was making an “overarching point” about how she had seen off people who had briefed against her in the past.ShareKey eventsShow key events onlyPlease turn on JavaScript to use this featureRayner used family conveyancing firm to buy tax row flatAngela Rayner used a small, high-street conveyancing firm for the purchase of the £800,000 Hove flat that has put her at the centre of a damaging tax row, Kiran Stacey reports.ShareIsrael’s president to visit London next Thursday for expected talks with ministersIsrael’s president will visit London next Thursday just weeks before the UK is expected to recognise the state of Palestine at the UN general assembly, Jessica Elgot reports.ShareTories claim Reform UK has ‘fallen short’ as Badenoch’s party continues to attract more donations than Farage’sDonations to the Conservatives fell between April and June this year as parties declared £11m in support, figures from the Electoral Commission have shown. PA Media reports:
The Tories received £2.9m in private donations in the second quarter of the year, down from £3.4m in the first three months of 2025.
A third of the Conservatives’ total came in the form of a £1m donation from video game entrepreneur Jez San, following an earlier £1m gift to the party in February.
The party also received £250,000 from its current treasurer, Graham Edwards, and another £200,000 from businessman Kamal Pankhania, half personally and half through one of his companies, Westcombe Homes.
Despite the fall in donations, the Conservatives still out-raised Labour, which received £2.6m in donations, slightly more than the £2.4m it declared between January and March.
More than half of that figure came from trade unions, including £746,000 from Unite, which has threatened to “re-examine” its relationship with Labour over the government’s handling of a long-running strike by refuse workers in Birmingham.
Other donations included £442,000 from the GMB union, £246,000 from Usdaw and £106,000 from the Communication Workers Union.
Labour’s largest private donation during the period came in the form of £80,000 from property company Activepine, owned by Birmingham-based businessman Maqbool Ahmed.
Donations to the Liberal Democrats fell by around half, to just £773,597, while despite Reform UK’s consistent lead in the polls, donations to Nigel Farage’s party remained relatively steady at £1.4m.
Reform’s donations, slightly down from the £1.5m in the previous three months, included £300,000 from the party’s treasurer, Nick Candy, and £200,000 from Lebanese-born businessman Bassim Haidar, who claimed last year he planned to leave the UK over plans to scrap the non-dom tax status.
Farage’s party also accepted £100,000 from Greybull Capital, the company which bought a struggling British Steel in 2019 before selling it to Chinese company Jingye later that year.
The Conservatives said Reform had “once again fallen short”, claiming donors were “clearly expressing continued hesitancy about their ongoing internal mess and billions in unfunded spending commitments”.
Tory chairman Kevin Hollinrake said the figures “underline the continued strength of support behind the Conservative party”, adding: “We are building momentum quarter after quarter, and it is clear that people recognise and believe in Kemi’s mission of Conservative renewal.”
Parties must declare all donations of more than £11,180, as well as smaller donations that add up to more than this figure.
ShareKeir Starmer walks with electrical engineer apprentice Shannon Pearson during his visit to BAE Scotstoun shipyard in Glasgow, where he is promoting the benefits of a £10bn ship deal with Norway that will secure 2,000 jobs in Scotland. Photograph: Andy Buchanan/PAShareSwinney sidesteps question about Sturgeon taking non-parliamentary earnings as dividends, not salary, minimising taxSeverin CarrellSeverin Carrell is the Guardian’s Scotland editor.John Swinney has given a guarded response to questions about Nicola Sturgeon’s tax affairs after it emerged she has taken £30,000 in company dividends, a form of income which side-steps Scotland’s higher rates of income tax.The former first minister’s register of interests has shown in June she took £20,000 from Nicola Sturgeon Ltd, a firm set up to handle her non-parliamentary earnings, after withdrawing £10,000 earlier this year.Because they were dividends and not a salary, those payments trigger a tax liability under the UK’s lower rates of tax for dividends of 33.75% rather than the higher “advanced” 45% rate for those earning above £75,001 levied under Scotland’s income tax system.Sturgeon earns £74,507 as a backbench MSP, just below the advanced rate threshold.There were estimates she likely legally avoided around £3,600 in income tax, raising questions from opposition parties about her repeated calls for the wealthy to pay more taxes on the grounds of fairness. That money also went to the UK Treasury, rather than the Scottish exchequer.Pressed by reporters on Thursday whether that honoured the social contract Sturgeon has argued the wealthy should have to fund public services, Swinney did not engage with the fairness question, but said:
I think people obviously have got to take forward their own tax arrangements and to make sure their tax arrangements are compliant with the existing legislative arrangements … I just think people have obviously got to fulfil their tax obligations in all circumstances.
Her register of interests implies she will earn around £300,000 for her recent biography Frankly; she reported her company had received two £75,000 payments from Pan Macmillan, her publishers, and expects two further instalments.A spokesperson for Sturgeon said: “Nicola will pay all tax due. The money will be subject to both company tax and personal tax.”Nicola Sturgeon with a copy of her new autobiography, “Frankly” Photograph: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty ImagesShareTories trying to force out Rayner because she’s ‘bloody good at her job’, Lucy Powell tells MPsLucy Powell, the leader of the Commons, told MPs this morning that the Conservatives were trying to force Angela Rayner out of office because she was a “huge asset” to the government.Speaking during business questions, she said:
[The Tories] have a go at her because she is so bloody good at her job.
Powell also said Rayner had referred herself to the No 10 ethics adviser and “I am not going to say any more on that matter.”ShareIt is understood Angela Rayner is spending the day meeting regional mayors, including West Yorkshire’s Labour Tracy Brabin and the North East’s Kim McGuinness, at Derbyshire stately home Chatsworth House, PA Media reports.ShareAndy Burnham, the Labour mayor of Greater Manchester, was asked about Angela Rayner in an interview on BBC Radio Manchester this morning. As the BBC reports, he described Rayner as a “friend” and urged people “not to rush judgement”.He said:
Angela’s life is complicated, she has a trust fund in relation to her son and that clearly makes things complicated when it comes to property.
What I would say is let the ethics adviser take a proper, careful look at it and then come back with an independent judgement.
ShareSwinney tells SNP that Scottish government must stick to legal route to obtaining second independence referendumSeverin CarrellSeverin Carrell is the Guardian’s Scotland editor.John Swinney is planning to confront activists in the Scottish National party who want him to pursue an aggressive strategy on independence by insisting the Scottish government can only use legal routes to win a fresh referendum.The first minister told reporters in Edinburgh this morning he believes the only politically legitimate route to a second referendum is for the SNP to win an overall majority in next May’s Holyrood elections, repeating Alex Salmond’s feat in 2011.He said the agreement by the then UK government and Labour in 2011 that the overall SNP majority constituted a clear mandate had established a clear precedent that could not be rejected again.He insisted that independence would be central to the party’s election campaign, but said it had to pursue a legal route to a second vote. That meant winning Westminster’s agreement – the UK supreme court ruled unequivocally in 2022 that only the UK government could sanction a referendum. He said:
I think you all know me well enough to know that I’m somebody that deals with the harsh realities of politics and the hard reality [is] that we live within a legal framework, and we have to operate within that legal framework.
And the issue of the constitution is reserved to the United Kingdom parliament. That issue has been tested by the supreme court [so] the route to delivering independence is having a clear expression by the people of Scotland that they want to be independent and that that commands domestic and international legitimacy. And my route does that.
Amid continuing uncertainty amongst his ministerial colleagues about what precisely constitutes a mandate to stage a second vote, frustrated SNP activists are planning to table amendments at the party’s annual conference in October challenging his approach.They want Swinney to agree to demand independence if a pro-independence parties win a majority of the votes on the regional list in May – an approach which adds votes for pro-independence minority parties such as the Scottish Greens and Alba to SNP support, and declare “independence day” on 1 May 2027.While ostensibly the only tested route to a referendum, Swinney’s approach is problematic because the SNP needs to substantially increase its vote share by next May to win the 65 seats needed for an overall majority.Even though support for independence remains at around 50%, the SNP is currently polling at around 34% and voters do not list a second referendum as a top priority.John Swinney at the Blue Drill Hall in Edinburgh, where he gave a speech this morning on independence. Photograph: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty ImagesShareUpdated at 13.04 BSTNo 10 says Starmer has ‘full confidence’ in Rayner, but won’t comment on whether PM expects her to keep job until electionAt the Downing Street lobby briefing the PM’s spokesperson said that Keir Starmer retains “full confidence” in Angela Rayner. But he would not comment on whether Starmer expected Rayner to remain in post for the rest of this parliament.Asked about this, the spokesperson said:
I’m not going to go through the cabinet and do that. You have the prime minister’s words in the house yesterday. He said that she followed the right course of action and expressed his pride in her work as his deputy.
It is normal for prime ministers to decline to guarantee that any minister will remain in post for the long term, and Starmer does normally sidestep questions like this. But Starmer has committed to keeping Rachel Reeves as chancellor for the whole of this parliament. And at one point No 10 did say David Lammy would stay as foreign secretary for a full term too.ShareStarmer condemns vandalism at Rayner’s flat ‘in strongest possible terms’Downing Street has also condemned the vandalism at Angela Rayner’s flat. (See 11.14am.)At the lobby briefing the PM’s spokesperson told reporters:
Some of you may have seen the photos of the vandalism of the deputy prime minister’s home this morning.
The prime minister condemns this vandalism in the strongest possible terms.
Whatever scrutiny our parliamentarians may face, it is appalling that their private homes should be targeted in this way.
And a spokesperson for Rayner said:
This vandalism to residents’ homes is totally unjustifiable and beyond the pale.
Neither Angela nor her neighbours deserve to be subjected to harassment and intimidation.
It will rightly be a matter for the police to take action as they deem appropriate.
ShareNo 10 says Starmer ‘kept updated’ as Rayner got legal briefing on her tax problem, but ‘final advice’ only arrived on WednesdayDowning Street has said that Angela Rayner only got “final advice” saying that she had underpaid stamp duty on her Hove flat on Wednesday morning.But it has also said that Keir Starmer was “kept updated” about the steps that she was taking to clarify her position.It has now emerged that on Friday evening Rayner instructed a KC to review her position in relation to the stamp duty she should have paid when she bought the flat.On Monday evening Rayner received a draft initial opinion. But that was not the final advice, and the KC asked for further information.At that point the court order was still in place restricting what Rayner could say about the trust set up for her disabled son (which affected the stamp duty liability), although she could discuss it with her KC. On Tuesday evening that court order was lifted.And on Wednesday morning Rayner received the final legal opinion saying that she had underpaid her stamp duty. At that point she referred herself to the PM’s ethics adviser, Sir Laurie Magnus.There have been suggestions that Keir Starmer falsely suggested that Rayner had done nothing wrong when in fact he knew there was a problem.At the Downing Street lobby briefing this morning the PM’s spokesperson did not accept that. The spokesperson would not say what Rayner was told in in the initial legal opinion on Monday, or at what point Starmer realised she had not paid her full stamp duty liability.Instead, the spokesperson just said:
The prime minister was kept updated on the steps that the deputy prime minister was taking, as was appropriate, and as soon as that final legal was received by the deputy prime minister on Wednesday morning, she immediately took steps to self-refer herself to the IA [independent adviser], and she updated the prime minister on the legal advice at the earliest opportunity as well.
Starmer has been criticised for telling Radio 5 Live on Monday that those briefing against Rayner were “wrong”. But the spokesperson said that, as the transcript showed, Starmer was making an “overarching point” about how she had seen off people who had briefed against her in the past.Share
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