Keir Starmer refuses to say he is '100% confident' in Angela Rayner's story about her council house

Keir Starmer yesterday refused to say he was '100 per cent confident' that Angela Rayner had done nothing wrong over the sale of her council house.

The Labour leader and his deputy have faced weeks of questions over her 'blended' living arrangements before she became an MP.

Ms Rayner has denied allegations that she may have avoided capital gains tax on the sale of her home or broken electoral law by falsely declaring where she was living.

But she has refused to publish tax advice which she claims exonerates her – and has not shown it directly to Sir Keir, he has admitted.

On a trip to Blackpool, he told ITV Granada: 'I'm very confident in Angela Rayner.' When a journalist said that was 'different to 100 per cent confident', Sir Keir replied: 'Don't try and play a game on this, I've been absolutely clear.

'Angela's answered all those questions, I have full confidence in her and I've expressed that over and over again.' Conservative Party deputy chairman Jack Lopresti said: 'Sir Keir Starmer is deliberately trying to avoid dealing with a serious ethics scandal engulfing his deputy because he is too weak to lead.

'He can't say that he's 100 per cent confident his deputy hasn't done anything 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 purchase her former home at Vicarage Road, Stockport, in 2007.

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

But Ms Rayner remained on the electoral roll at Vicarage Road until 2015, when she sold the house for a profit of £48,500. She maintains that it was 'her' house.