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Angela Rayner has resigned from the UK government after Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s ethics adviser found she had breached the ministerial code over her underpayment of stamp duty on a seaside flat. Laurie Magnus said the outgoing deputy prime minister had ‘acted with integrity’, but failed to ‘heed the caution’ contained within legal advice she received when buying the £800,000 property in Hove. The resignation marks a major blow for the prime minister and it is understood a wider reshuffle will now take place later on Friday. Rayner had referred herself to the standards watchdog for investigation after she admitted she had paid £40,000 less surcharge than she should have done on the purchase in May. She said she made a mistake based on legal advice she received at the time, before consulting a leading counsel, who found she was liable to pay a higher stamp duty rate, following headlines about her tax affairs. In a letter published on Friday, Magnus said: ‘She believed that she relied on the legal advice she had received, but unfortunately did not heed the caution contained within it, which acknowledged that it did not constitute expert tax advice and which suggested that expert advice be sought.’ Rayner told the prime minister in a letter that ‘I deeply regret my decision to not seek additional specialist tax advice’ and took ‘full responsibility for this error’. Magnus said he believed she had acted in ‘good faith’, but that ‘the responsibility of any taxpayer for reporting their tax returns and settling their liabilities rests ultimately with themselves’. In a resignation letter on Friday, Rayner said: ‘I have long believed that people who serve the British public in government must always observe the highest standards, and while the Independent Adviser has concluded that I acted in good faith and with honesty and integrity throughout, I accept that I did not meet the highest standards in relation to my recent property purchase. ‘I would like to take this opportunity to repeat that it was never my intention to do anything other than pay the right amount.’ Starmer said Rayner would ‘remain a major figure in our party’ and ‘continue to fight for the causes you care so passionately about’ despite her resignation as his deputy, housing secretary and deputy Labour leader. Losing the deputy prime minister will cause a headache for Starmer as he seeks to reset government following a difficult summer dominated by criticism of the small boats crisis and speculation about tax rises in the autumn budget. Rayner is popular among the Labour grassroots and is said to have played an important role in defusing the backbench revolt over proposed welfare cuts earlier this year. She has been key to his political project, overseeing the manifesto pledge to build 1.5 million new homes as well as the government’s flagship workers’ rights expansion, and is seen as a bridge between No 10 and the wider party. Tory leader Kemi Badenoch criticised the prime minister for having waited for Rayner’s resignation, saying her position had been ‘untenable for days’. ‘Angela Rayner is finally gone. It says everything about Keir Starmer’s weak leadership that he had to wait for a report before acting,’ she said. Meanwhile, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has brought forward his leader’s speech at the party conference in the wake of the scandal. He will speak at 1pm, three hours earlier than previously expected. Farage has said there will be ‘splits’ within Labour when it begins the process to elect a new deputy leader. By Nina Lloyd, David Hughes, David Lynch and Sophie Wingate, PA source: PA Copyright 2025 Alliance News Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
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