Police question Angela Rayner’s neighbours in probe of property sale

Police officers have questioned Angela Rayner’s neighbours about her movements and whether they saw her taking her children to school.

Ms Rayner is facing scrutiny over whether she or her husband paid the right amount of capital gains tax when two properties they owned simultaneously during their marriage were sold.

The question of where she was living is crucial to determining whether she owed any tax, and if she committed electoral fraud by registering at the wrong address.

At least five neighbours are now understood to have been spoken to by Greater Manchester Police officers.

Mark Rayner, her former husband, sold his property, on Lowndes Lane, Stockport, in 2016 after purchasing the home using the Right to Buy scheme in 1991.

Ms Rayner, the Labour deputy leader, has insisted that, while they were together, she did not reside with him, and their children, at the address and in fact lived at a house she owned on nearby Vicarage Road

The couple, who have two children together, separated in 2020.

David Murphy, 83, who has lived opposite Mr Rayner’s former property on Lowndes Lane for more than 20 years told the Mail on Sunday he had been spoken to by police over the couple’s living arrangements.

Mr Murphy said: “I used to see her take the kids to school, so I thought she lived at the address. Two police officers wanted to know about her movements.”

Another neighbour, Sylvia Hampson, previously said she had spoken to the police twice.

The 83-year-old was a legal witness for the MP, signing a key mortgage document when she sold her Stockport home in 2015.

Mrs Hampson claimed Ms Rayner, the Labour deputy leader, asked her to sign the document, which stipulated that it was her “principal property” even though she lived a mile away from her, next door to her then-husband.

Neighbours living on Vicarage Road have repeatedly rejected Ms Rayner’s claim that she lived on the street and say she lived with her husband and their children “full-time from about 2009 or 2010”.

Residents said the only person they recall living at the house before Ms Rayner sold it was her brother, Darren Bowen.

They previously spoke of an incident about a year before the house was sold for £127,500, when a teenager living in the street accidentally kicked a football through a window.

The boy’s mother, who did not wish to be named, said: “Her brother Darren was living there on his own at that point. There definitely weren’t any children there.”

“Another neighbour had it [the window] 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. 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.”

Ms Rayner has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and accused Tory ministers of “obsessing” over her living arrangements.

A Labour spokesman said: “Angela has been clear that she will cooperate with any investigation.

“We remain confident that she has complied with the rules. It’s now appropriate to let the police do their work.”