Critics accuse Angela Rayner of 'hypocrisy' after it emerges she asked for a Tory hopeful's tax return amid homes row

Angela Rayner was last night accused of 'rank hypocrisy' after a letter came to light in which she demanded a Tory candidate publish their tax return.

As Rishi Sunak weighed in on the 'two homes' row surrounding the Labour deputy leader for the first time, it emerged she had demanded in 2021 that now-Conservative MP Jill Mortimer publish details of her tax affairs.

Yet Ms Rayner's frontbench colleagues have claimed that calls for her to come clean on her property dealings, and any advice she received over them, would make her 'the exception'.

Yesterday Ms Rayner was targeted by a 'tax dodger' protest as she broke cover on the local election campaign trail.

On a visit to the North-East, demonstrators displayed a banner which read: 'Angela Rayner – Tax Dodger?'

The protesters, believed to be local Tory activists, wore high-vis 'Tax Inspector' vests.

Sources said Ms Rayner was forced to sneak out the back door of a bar she was visiting in Yarm to avoid being photographed with the protesters. 

She has faced repeated questions over her old living arrangements, with accusations that she may have dodged tax and even broken the law when she sold her former council house, in Stockport, Greater Manchester, a decade ago, something she denies. 

But Rishi Sunak yesterday pointed out that she has previously asked 'lots of questions' about his financial affairs.

The Prime Minister told LBC radio: 'When it comes to me or my affairs, people are very happy to ask lots of questions, including Angela Rayner herself...  I think there are very clear questions for her to answer about this.'

Meanwhile it emerged that in a letter to then-Tory chairman Amanda Milling in 2021, Ms Rayner demanded that Hartlepool by-election candidate Jill Mortimer 'publish in full her tax returns' covering a period when she lived in the Cayman Islands.

But the Tories said Ms Mortimer, who went on to win the by-election, was in the Cayman Islands because her then-husband was a regulator working on 'counter-fraud, anti-corruption and anti-terrorist financing'.

Tory deputy chairman Jonathan Gullis said: 'This is exactly the kind of rank hypocrisy we've come to expect from Labour. Angela has always been the first one to lead the charge against anyone else. Yet as soon as the tables are turned, we are supposed to trust her word.'

A Labour spokesman said: 'It's perfectly legitimate for, and indeed the public would expect, the Opposition to ask about a Tory candidate's business activities in a tax haven, yet they failed to respond.

'Angela has taken expert tax advice which confirms that no capital gains tax was payable on the sale of her home.'

The Mail on Sunday has uncovered social media posts which cast doubt on her claim she lived separately from her family for the first five years of her marriage