Keir Starmer faces the beginning of a much more unstable and complicated political course than he would have wanted. The resignation of the Vice Prime Minister and number two From the Labor Party, Angela Rayner, due to a non -payment of taxes that has come to light these days, opens a crisis with multiple ramifications, between the voters of the left and the threat of the populist right is stronger than ever.
Rayner bought this year in the coastal town of Hove, south of England, an apartment for about 800,000 pounds (just over 920,000 euros or around one million dollars), for which he paid a tax of documented legal acts (Stamp Dutyis known in the United Kingdom) for a value of 30,000 pounds (34,500 euros). That is the amount due in the case of a first residence. But the British Tax Law requires a higher amount if the purchase is for a second residence. This is where everything is complicated for Rayner, a policy adored by the bases to the left of the party and by the unions, where his public career began.
One of the children he had in his previous marriage was born prematurely, due to a negligence of public health. The compensation received was consigned in a trust in the name of the minor, which each of the members of the marriage also gave part of their property of the floor they shared in Manchester. It was the way to ensure that the child, along with his brothers, had guaranteed a comfortable future in that home.
Being still a child without the legal age, the English law continues to consider for fiscal purposes that the housing is owned by Rayner, and therefore should have paid some 70,000 pounds (about 80,000 euros) of taxes, that is, almost double the 34,500 he delivered, for his new house in Hove.
Everything has been complicated for politics. Starmer strongly supported his minister (he is also in charge of the Ministry of Housing, paradoxically) at first, believing the initial version that he had received erroneous fiscal advice from at least three professionals before making his purchase.
In the last hours, that advice was no longer so clear, and Stamer has decided to condition his final decision to the result of an internal report. The independent government advisor for ethical and incompatibilities matters, Laurie Magnus, has finally delivered this Friday the results of his investigation, which concludes that Rayner did not comply with his legal obligations and therefore with the ministerial code that are obliged to fulfill all the members of the Government.
“Although the independent advisor has concluded [en su informe] That I acted in good faith and with honesty and integrity, I admit that I did not meet the highest standards in regard to my recent real estate purchase, ”explains Rayner in the resignation letter that has delivered this Friday to the prime minister, once the Magnus report had already reached the hands of this.
A convulsive period for Starmer is now opened, which loses a heavyweight in his team, and for the Labor Party, which must open a process of choice of number two at a time when the Prime Minister.
“Angela Rayner will continue to be an important figure in our party,” said British Prime Minister in his resignation letter. “You will continue to defend with the same passion all the causes you have defended,” Starmer praises his already ex -number two in a text that he wanted to write by hand to transmit greater warmth.
In the last hours, the pressure on Rayner, both on the street and in the political debate, had become unsustainable. In the new house they had appeared painted in which she was accused of “fiscal evasora” (tax evadersaid the graffiti), and the opposition of the conservative party insistently claimed the resignation of the minister.
The scrutiny of the media had already made clear, before he presented his Magnus report, that the professionals (three, specifically) to whom Rayner came, according to her, to obtain advice, they were not fiscal experts or knew the legal ins and outs of a figure as complex as the trust (similar to Spanish trust, but not exactly the same).
Rayner’s political weight
Rayner had been learning in recent months to build complicity and collaboration with the British Prime Minister. It was not so at first. . Her choice for militants as number two of the formation strengthened her in her political confrontation with Starmer, which in a pragmatic play not only kept her in her team, but also appointed Vice Prime Minister, a figure that is not mandatory and depends exclusively on the will of the head of government.
they became the greatest focus of the new Labor Government.
“For a teenage mother who lived in a social home in Stockport, getting to serve at the highest levels of the government has been the honor of my life. Government challenges are nothing compared to the challenge of bringing food to the table and of achieving a roof on our heads, as I had to do when I raised my children while working. Many people throughout the country pass the same thing,” Rayner said in his letter of resignation.
It was the way to publicly remember its popular origins again. Mother at 16. Social services students shortly after, aguerrida trade unionist, a woman with deep left -wing convictions and the Starmer bond, with a rigid and isolated reputation, with some bases of the party increasingly unhappy with the direction of the government both in her economic policy and in matters such as the tragedy of Gaza.
