Keir Starmer refuses to say he is ‘100% confident’ in Angela Rayner’s story about his council house

Keir Starmer yesterday refused to say he was “100% sure” Angela Rayner had done nothing wrong over the sale of her council house.

The Labor leader and his deputy faced weeks of questions over her “mixed” living conditions before she became an MP.

Ms Rayner has denied allegations that she may have avoided capital gains tax on the sale of her house or broken electoral law by falsely reporting where she lived.

But she refused to publish tax advice which she said exonerated her – and did not show it directly to Sir Keir, he admitted.

During a trip to Blackpool, he told ITV Granada: “I have a lot of confidence in Angela Rayner.” When a journalist said it was “different from 100 per cent confidence”, Sir Keir replied: “Don’t try to play a game on that, I’ve been absolutely clear.”

Ms Rayner has denied allegations that she may have avoided capital gains tax on the sale of her house or broken electoral law by falsely reporting where she lived.

“Angela answered all these questions, I have full confidence in her and I have expressed this many times.” Conservative Party deputy chairman Jack Lopresti said: “Sir Keir Starmer is deliberately trying to avoid dealing with a serious ethics scandal which is engulfing his deputy because he is too weak to lead.

“He can’t say he’s 100 percent sure his deputy did nothing wrong… He should order an independent investigation.”

Before becoming MP for Ashton-under-Lyne, Ms Rayner used Margaret Thatcher’s Right to Buy scheme to buy her former home in Vicarage Road, Stockport, in 2007.

She married Mark Rayner in 2010 and when the couple re-registered the birth of their two sons that year, they provided Mark’s Lowndes Lane address.

But Ms Rayner remained registered as a voter in Vicarage Road until 2015, when she sold the house for a profit of £48,500. She maintains that it was “her” house.