Allies of Angela 'two homes' Rayner accuse critics of SEXISM for questioning if Labour's deputy leader avoided capital gains tax and broke election law - as Keir Starmer claims 'no one is interested' in row over her financial affairs

A Labour frontbencher today suggested people questioning whether deputy leader Angela Rayner avoided capital gains tax and broke electoral law were sexist.

Shadow health minister Abena Oppong-Asare lashed out as Ms Rayner faced increasing scrutiny of claims she may have avoided a levy on the sale of her own house and falsely declared where she was actually living. 

Ms Rayner has faced questions about whether she paid the right amount of tax on the 2015 sale of her ex-council house due to confusion over whether it was her principal residence. 

She denies both claims and says she has received legal advice that says she has done nothing wrong.

The Conservatives this morning urged party leader Sir Keir Starmer, a former top prosecutor, to look into claims first raised by the Mail on Sunday at the weekend. He refused to do so and said 'nobody is interested' in what he labelled 'smears'.

Ms Oppong-Asare, the MP for Erith and Thamesmead in south-east London, went further by telling LBC Ms Rayner was the victim of unwarranted 'mud slinging'.

She said the attacks were being used as a 'distraction' ahead of the May local elections, adding: 'My concern is the direction politics is going where we are seeing personal attacks on certain individuals, it is predominantly women, and it is predominantly politicians of colour. 

'We should really just be focusing on the policies people are concerned about, that's really what people want to hear, not mud slinging from politicians.'   

Work and Pensions Secretary Mel Stride today told LBC: 'What does surprise and slightly confuse me is the fact that Sir Keir Starmer, as a former DPP and a fairly forensic and inquiring mind, has not seen fit to ask her [Rayner] to show him this advice to he can come to his own conclusion on it.

'I'm a bit confused about that ... why are you not sufficiently interested in this to ask Angela Rayner to provide you with the details and then you can also reassure us that nothing untoward has happened?'

But on a visit to the West Midlands Sir Keir told reporters:  'Angela Rayner has been asked no end of questions about this. She's answered them all. She said she's very happy to answer any further questions from the police or from any of the authorities.

'I don't need to see the legal advice. My team has seen it. But I will say this, that on the day that the A&E figures - people are waiting more than 24 hours in A&E, we now know that they are 10 times as high as they were five years ago - the idea that the Tories want to be focusing on what Angela Rayner, how much time she spent with her ex husband 10 years ago, I can tell you here at this hospital, nobody but nobody is interested in that.

'They're very, very interested in what are you going to do about the A&E problem caused by this Government?

He added: It's not appropriate for me to see (Ms Rayner's legal advice) but I do know this, that if you're waiting more than 24 hours for A&E, you're much more interested in why the Government is not absolutely laser-focused on that, which is what they should be, than chasing this smear against Angela Rayner and how much time she spent with her husband over 10 years ago.'

Ms Rayner is facing fresh accusations of rule-breaking after The Mail on Sunday exposed social media posts that cast more doubt on her insistence she lived apart from her husband and children for their first five years of marriage. 

In one post, she said she had 'just got home' – but the backdrop is her then-husband's Stockport house, where she claims she did not live.

The Mail on Sunday studied dozens of open social media posts by Ms Rayner, all showing her life – with her children and cats – at the Lowndes Lane address of then-husband, Mark. 

None of the pictures show her at Vicarage Road, a mile away, where she was on the electoral register until selling the ex-council house in 2015.

Ms Rayner could face a criminal conviction and a fine for a false declaration on the electoral roll if it is found she was not actually living at Vicarage Road, as neighbours have claimed. 

They say her brother, Darren, lived there in the later years and described Labour's deputy leader as the 'landlady'.

There are also questions over whether she owed tax on the sale, as married couples can normally count only one property as their main home at any one time.

She has refused to publish tax advice which she claims exonerates her.

Last night Tory party chairman Richard Holden led a clamour of calls from Tory MPs for Ms Rayner to answer 'simple' questions about her property affairs. 

In a letter to Sir Keir and Ms Rayner, sent last night and seen by the Mail, Mr Holden said: 'You have pledged to uphold standards in public life, but the failure by you and your deputy to answer the simplest questions about this matter makes a mockery of these claims.

'Given the clear public interest in this case, your unwillingness to investigate this fully so far, or even bother to look at legal advice Ms Rayner claims to have received, is a damning indictment of your leadership.'

Last night Tory deputy chairman Jonathan Gullis said: 'It's about time Angela Rayner came clean on where she was actually living between 2010 and 2015.

'As more evidence is uncovered, appearing to undermine Angela Rayner's account, it is increasingly clear that the British people cannot trust Labour's deputy leader.'

Tory former Cabinet minister David Jones said: 'Keir Starmer should insist that Angela Rayner is completely transparent over the sale of her house. 

'She should also publish the advice she says she received from her accountant.

'Angela Rayner has been quick to criticise Conservatives in the past. She should now demonstrate that she is herself beyond reproach.'