Senior Labour MP insisted Keir Starmer was right to take Angela Rayner at her word amid probe into property dealings

A senior Labour MP insisted last night that Sir Keir Starmer was right to take Angela Rayner at her word that she has done nothing wrong in her property dealings.

As a neighbour who has accused Ms Rayner of 'lying' over the affair revealed she had spoken to police, the party's justice spokesman said Sir Keir was right to trust his No 2 because he 'knew her'.

Shabana Mahmood said Sir Keir shouldn't look at the legal advice given to Ms Rayner about the sale of her right-to-buy home. 

Police are investigating claims that the Labour deputy leader is liable for capital gains tax, and other allegations that she may have breached electoral law, because she did not live at the property. Tory party chairman Richard Holden said: 'Labour are still trying to cover up Keir Starmer's role in the Rayner scandal.'

It comes after a document cast further doubt on Ms Rayner's claims that she lived in her home in Vicarage Road, Stockport, rather than in her husband's property in Lowndes Lane.

The Labour MP asked Lowndes Lane resident Sylvia Hampson to be a legal witness to the 2015 sale of her Vicarage Road home. It begs the question of why Ms Rayner didn't ask a neighbour at Vicarage Road – where she claimed to live. Ms Hampson has branded Ms Rayner a 'f***ing liar' for saying she lived apart from her husband.