Sir Keir Starmer said he has “complete confidence” in Angela Rayner as he faced further questions on the row over whether Labour’s deputy should have paid capital gains tax on the sale of her former council house.
Speaking on a visit to Teeside on Thursday, the Labour leader said Ms Rayner had already answered questions on the row and would fully cooperate with the investigation set up by Greater Manchester Police.
He told broadcasters: “Angela’s answered no end of questions on this, she said she’s happy to answer any further questions. I have complete confidence in her and the police investigation, I think, allows a line to be drawn in relation to this.”
Earlier, Labour demanded that the police launch a probe into allegations a suspended Tory MP misused campaign funds in the latest sleaze scandal to rock Rishi Sunak’s party.
Mark Menzies has lost the Conservative whip after reportedly using thousands of pounds given by donors to fund medical expenses and having made a late-night call to a 78-year-old aide asking for help because he had been locked up by “bad people” demanding money for his release.
Labour chair Anneliese Dodds slammed the “stagnation, scandal and sleaze” engulfing Mr Sunak’s party and asked her Conservative counterpart Richard Holden whether the police had been informed about the allegations, which the party has known about for months.
