Overview

• Press reports say Angela Rayner removed her name from the deeds of her Greater Manchester property weeks before buying an £800,000 Hove flat, reducing the stamp duty due from about £70,000 to roughly £30,000.
• HM Land Registry records show applications pending on the Ashton-under-Lyne title, with the ownership variation understood to have been lodged before the May 1 purchase.
• Councils were notified that her Ashton home is her primary residence and that the Hove property is a second home for council tax, with sources saying she pays the second-home premium on the Hove flat.
• Rayner’s spokesman says she paid the duty required in full and in line with the rules, rejecting any suggestion of wrongdoing.
• The Conservative Party has begun a legal process to challenge her place on the Ashton-under-Lyne electoral roll, according to reporting that sets out possible consequences for her London grace-and-favour flat’s council tax treatment.