Angela Rayner is a scrounger, grifter and shameless hypocrite.

Fallingstar

AGAA4

Why this attack on Angela Rayner when there are other MPs who have done much worse being investigated by the police?

I do wonder.
But it is no surprise, as soon as Rayner was reinstated in the cabinet I knew the knives would be out.
Very predictable and tedious already.

You should have been there for the famous "Angela Raynor Trouser suit thread". ....chosen to attack the new Labour Govt straight off.

And as I pointed out, the Ministerial code refers very specifically to a serious breach which:

a) Laurie Magnus did not find and
b) that she was in breach at all is disputed by her legal counsel.

What Magnus said, after deliberating for less than 48 hours, after Rayner referred herself, was:

I believe Ms Rayner has acted with integrity and with a dedicated and exemplary commitment to public service. I consider, however, that her unfortunate failure to settle her SDLT liability at the correct level, coupled with the fact that this was established only following intensive public scrutiny, leads me to advise you that, in relation to this matter, she cannot be considered to have met the “highest possible standards of proper conduct” as envisaged by the Code. Accordingly, it is with deep regret that I must advise you that in these circumstances, I consider the Code to have been breached.

Magnus is not a tax specialist.

I am very familiar with the tax laws surrounding trusts, how complicated those are and how it would be entirely feasible for her have been advised wrongly.

Most importantly HMRC did not find Rayner to have been careless.

Why is Dorries kicking off about this as the law about Ministers over the age of 65 not receiving severance pay dates from 1991?

BM. The rules are if the Minister serves less than six months, returns to a paid role within three months, or commits a serious breach of conduct then the severance pay must be returned. None of those apply.

She does not have to repay the money whatever a bunch of hack journalists say.

AGAA4

Why this attack on Angela Rayner when there are other MPs who have done much worse being investigated by the police?

I do wonder.
But it is no surprise, as soon as Rayner was reinstated in the cabinet I knew the knives would be out.
Very predictable and tedious already.

Maybe the terms of severance payments for cabinet ministers should include a clause that any severance payment must be returned if the member returns to the cabinet in 12 months or less.

Or, if one receives a payment upon leaving the cabinet, they cannot return to a cabinet position for 12 months.

Or must serve for a minimum length of time before being eligible for a severance payment.

😲 Don't mention the green .....

Well, she did wear that green trouser suit. 🤭

Why this attack on Angela Rayner when there are other MPs who have done much worse being investigated by the police?

Yes I agree LizzieDrip. What annoys me is they think they've outwitted us all. I include all party's in this. Sadly, the mistrust towards them just keeps on building. But we are dependent on a government being able to run the country. So a bit like putting your hand in the Tombola lucky dip. Maybe we should all abstain from voting to demonstrate how disillusioned we are.

It was AR herself who fought tooth and nail to amend the Ministerial Code in 2024 to include the clause that “no person departing ministerial office while under investigation for allegations of gross misconduct or breaching the Ministerial Code will be entitled to severance pay.”

Plevey08

I agree with Graphites facts. Except the last paragraph. She was very much involved in the plotting of getting KS out. She and AB are as thick as thieves. I don't think she minded at all at having to leave her cabinet post. It was cannily good timing as thereafter the plotting commenced.

Absolutely Plevey08.

Looking at the timing, it would appear that the plotting had already started when AR resigned. I would imagine she was part of it and knew exactly what she was doing.

I can’t trust any of them again!

Correcting typo: The provisions that members over the age of 65 cannot receive severance pay is in the Ministerial and other Pensions and Salaries Act 1991.

I agree with Graphites facts. Except the last paragraph. She was very much involved in the plotting of getting KS out. She and AB are as thick as thieves. I don't think she minded at all at having to leave her cabinet post. It was cannily good timing as thereafter the plotting commenced.

The provisions that members over the age of 65 can receive severance pay is in the Ministerial and other Pensions and Salaries Act 1991:

4 Grants to persons ceasing to hold ministerial and other offices.

(1)Where a person who has not attained the age of sixty-five—

www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1991/5/section/4

So Dorries is wrong when she says it was Rayner who insisted I repay mine because I was over 65? It’s law that existed long before either came into Parliament so she should not have been paid it in the first place.

Grantanow

According to a DT articke she made £180,000 in the year after she stepped down over the unpaid tax ussue. See www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/ddf14c403965a9fd

I recall she spoke against second jobs for MPs.

Small change compared to some.

To my mind, it is not Angela Rayners who is the scrounger, grifter and hypocrite of British politics. Nadine Dorries needs to look much closer to home. I do understand her choice of words though, as she’s employing the dead cat technique, much like this thread is attempting to do.

Nadine Dorries was my MP for a while. She made full use of the “main residence” allowance,and switching, more than once, to make as much money as possible.She rarely came to the constituency and did nothing for us because she was occupied in making money elsewhere.

I also despise Angela Rayner as a someone who is only out for herself and who is skilled in bending the rules. Morally bankrupt.

Pot and kettle - in other words just your typical MPs regardless of Party.

According to a DT articke she made £180,000 in the year after she stepped down over the unpaid tax ussue. See www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/ddf14c403965a9fd

I recall she spoke against second jobs for MPs.

The wording of the Ministerial Code is:

Ministers are expected to waive, on appointment, entitlement to a ministerial severance payment upon leaving office if they have served less than six months, or where they have committed a serious breach of the Ministerial Code, resulting in their departure.

Sir Laurie Magnus did not consider her breach of the ministerial code serious. That word does not appear in his letter to the Prime Minister and that’s why she was entitled to the severance pay.

Whether Laurie Magnus’s was correct in concluding she had breached the code is disputed.

Tax expert Dan Neidle: Rayner’s lawyer Graham Aaronson KC says the publicly stated facts were incomplete and (although he is not that blunt) Sir Laurie Magnus got it wrong. Mr Aaronson says that, properly understood, the legal advice Ms Rayner received was sufficient to show she had taken reasonable care.

Importantly, HMRC did not find her careless regarding her Stamp Duty Land Tax; they have cleared her of carelessness and deliberate wrongdoing.

This was a complex case involving a trust for her disabled son. Had she postponed buying a property for a year until he turned 18, which he now has, the matter would not have arisen.

She has not been in a cabinet position for over 10 months.

A cabinet minister receives additional pay about that of a backbench MP of between of £67,505 and £72,454.

If Magnus was wrong then she had lost far more income than the £16,876 severance pay she received.

There was never any guarantee she would return to a cabinet position and arguably may not have done had we not had a change of Prime Minister.

She’s right to keep the severance pay.

No-one takes Dorries seriously anyway.

Not "all of us" Leelaylo

Rayner as Housing Secretary underpaid 40,000 stamp duty doesn't give you much confidence in Burnham's choices. We have Louise Haigh Convicted Fraudster and Jonathan Reynolds who falsely said he was a solicitor wonder how many more secrets, indiscretions, lies if any will come out in the future. I forgot Mrs Dogwhistle and the grooming gang scandal.

She's none of those. She was entitled to the pay, it's in MP's contracts. She's probably spent some of it by now, she has an important job do & do we really want her worrying about her household budget.

The only Tory who paid theirs back was Nadine for the simple reason that it was paid in error & could have been taken back out of her salary at any time when the error was realised.

She was in the cabinet for a year, different from some who were only in Truss's cabinet for 6 weeks & still got the same pay-off.

No time for her, she is an embarrassment and a scrounger.

And so say all of us

The £17,000 pay out to Rayner was paid by the tax payer different I think and she's back in the same job, she should have paid it back. Voters would have thought better of her if she had I think and although she was let off about the house tax a cloud of doubt still hangs over her rightly or wrongly.