Labour's David Lammy defends Angela Rayner and claims the rules are 'different' when you are in opposition - after bombshell dossier of photos deepens deputy leader's housing row

Labour's David Lammy today defended his party's deputy leader Angela Rayner over her 'complicated' family life amid a deepening row over her housing arrangements.

The shadow foreign secretary insisted Ms Rayner had 'done nothing wrong' despite a bombshell dossier sparking fresh questions over her controversial property dealings.

He dismissed the renewed focus on Ms Rayner's past housing arrangements as 'smears' and stressed she had 'played by the rules'.

Mr Lammy was challenged over Ms Rayner's past hounding of senior Conservatives, such as Rishi Sunak, over their own personal tax affairs.

But Mr Lammy said there was a 'different arrangement and expectation for the Prime Minister' than there was for Ms Rayner, adding: 'We're not yet in Government.'

In a weeks-long row, Ms Rayner is facing demands to further explain her past living arrangements amid claims she may have escaped paying some tax.

It is also alleged she may have made a false declaration about where she was living on the electoral register, amid confusion about what was her principal residency. 

Ms Rayner has insisted that for many years her 'principal property' was a house in Stockport, where she claimed to live separately from her husband and children for the first five years of her marriage.

But the Mail on Sunday studied dozens of postings made by Ms Rayner on social media during that period showing her life with her children and cats at her husband's address.

One of the photos from the property she claims was not her principal residence was even posted with the caption 'just got home'.

In every case where there is a picture, the backdrop is the husband's house, the newspaper found.

'I think the Mail on Sunday has evidence that Angela Rayner, like so many families across the country, has and had a blended family,' Mr Lammy told Sky News when asked about the investigation this morning.

'You meet someone, they have children, a previous arrangement, many families up and down the country live in more than one home.

'That's what the photos I saw reflect. And it's consistent with the advice that Angela took in terms of her tax affairs from accountants, from lawyers. I don't think this is a story.'

Mr Lammy insisted Ms Rayner had been 'clear all along' and has Labour's 'full support'.

'Her arrangements, and certainly her tax arrangements, were subject to advice from accountants and from lawyers,' he added.

'She played by the rules but, yes, like everybody else she had a complicated life and spent time in her husband's place but also her place. Lots of families do that.'

But Mr Lammy repeated Ms Rayner's insistence that she would not publish the tax and legal advice she received to back up her claim she has done 'absolutely nothing wrong'.

'No she's not going to publish that, she's played by the rules, there's an investigation going on - let's see where we get,' he said.

'But I'm confident Angela has done nothing wrong here at all.'

Mr Lammy also hit out at the questions over Ms Rayner's past housing arrangements as 'smears' ahead of the general election.

'We know why these smears are being run - it's to detract from the £870 that average families are less well off in this country as a result of the tax burden of the Tories.

'It's not about Angela Rayner and her blended family. It's about Tory chaos.'

It is claimed Ms Rayner potentially faces a criminal conviction and a fine for a false declaration on the electoral roll – and under tax rules, married couples and civil couples can normally only count one property as their main home at any one time. 

The mother-of-three has repeatedly refused to publish tax advice which she claims exonerates her – and has not shown it to party leader Sir Keir Starmer.

Tory MP James Daly said: 'These staggering revelations seem to show that Angela Rayner has not been telling the truth about the most basic facts.

'Keir Starmer has said he has full confidence in her but has refused to consider any evidence. 

'This is now a question about his leadership and whether he is happy to have a deputy incapable of being straightforward with the public.'

The Mail on Sunday first revealed in February that a new biography of Ms Rayner by Lord Ashcroft had established that she used the Thatcherite right-to-buy policy to purchase a former council house in Vicarage Road, Stockport, in 2007, making a £48,500 profit when she sold the house eight years later. 

She faced accusations of hypocrisy because she has criticised the flagship Tory scheme for 'helping to fuel the housing crisis' by depleting publicly owned stock.

Documents seen by the newspaper showed that Ms Rayner was registered on the electoral roll at Vicarage Road for five years after she married Mark Rayner in 2010, while he was listed at an address in Lowndes Lane a mile away. 

When Ms Rayner re-registered the births of two of her children in 2010 she gave her address as her husband's house.

The unusual arrangement enabled her to avoid capital gains tax on the sale of the former council house and by retaining the property for more than five years she avoided having to return some of the price discount to the council. 

She could also have earned a 25 per cent single-occupancy discount on her council tax. Residents at Vicarage Road said Ms Rayner had described herself as the 'landlady' at her house, and that they rarely saw her.

In response to the story, Ms Rayner insisted that Vicarage Road was her home, saying: 'I bought my council house back in 2007. I owned my own home, lived there, paid the bills there and was registered to vote there, prior to selling the house in 2015. 

'All before I was an MP. As with the majority of ordinary people who sell their own homes, I was not liable for capital gains tax because it was my home and the only one I owned.'

In the face of mounting scepticism, Ms Rayner – who expects to be Britain's next deputy prime minister – doubled-down on her story, saying two weeks later: 'Vicarage Road was my principal property.... my house was my house at Vicarage Road and I paid all my bills there, that was my home.' 

But the analysis of multiple social media posts on platforms such as Twitter back to 2010 showed Ms Rayner relaxing at Lowndes Lane.

In a typical example from March 2014, she posted that she was 'just back from work' with a picture of her two cats, Woozle and Tilly, sitting on her lap. 

The same sofa can be seen in estate agents' pictures when the Lowndes Lane house was put up for sale the following year.

Another, from April 2014, read 'just got home' and included a picture of one of her boys playing against a Lowndes Lane backdrop. And one from 2012 said 'I can cook', with a picture of her children in the Lowndes Lane kitchen.

Stockport Council has said it will review allegations of electoral or tax fraud, while local police said they would look again at the case following an initial decision not to investigate.

A Labour spokesman said: 'Angela and her husband mutually decided to maintain their existing residences to reflect their family's circumstances and they shared childcare responsibilities.

'Angela has always made clear she also spent time at her husband's property when they had children and got married. She was perfectly entitled to do so.'