Downing Street crisis: British government's No. 2 resigns

LondonDeep crisis in Downing Street. Angela Rayner, number 2 of Keir Starmer's government, also Labour's No. 2, resigned as Deputy Prime Minister and Housing Minister on Friday. She did so after the independent assessor on ministerial standards, Sir Laurie Magnus, concluded that she had breached the ministerial code regarding the payment of property transfer tax (stamp duty) of a property in Hove, in southern England. Rayner, who stopped paying 40,000 pounds in taxes, also resigns from his party responsibility.

In the wake of what is a real shake-up and a missile to the waterline of the government, Starmer is currently proceeding with a profound remodeling of his executive. This initiative, forced by circumstances, takes place when only five days ago he had renewed for the third time all his closest entourage in Downing Street to try to boost a government and a leader who increasingly disappoints.

The scandal broke last Thursday when the Conservative newspaper Daily Telegraph published that Rayner had not paid the taxes that corresponded to him for the acquisition of said apartment. According to the newspaper, he should have paid the highest rate of thestamp duty, which applies when it comes to a second home, since she already had a family home in Greater Manchester, which was legally her main residence.

Due to this information, the Labour vice president commissioned a report last week from a law firm specializing in taxation. This Wednesday, the firm confirmed that she had underpaid. Rayner admitted this publicly, but justified it as an unintentional error and placed her political fate in the hands of Starmer's advisor. In her report, delivered this Friday to the premierLaurie Magnus asserts that, while there is no talk of intentional tax evasion, it does establish that No. 2 has "broken" the ministerial code.

Magnus's report details that Rayner openly discussed the existence of a trust that placed her former family home in Greater Manchester in the name of her disabled son (he is blind) to guarantee his financial future. According to the document from the Prime Minister's ethics adviser, Rayner believed, based on advice received from two professional firms, that she was only entitled to pay a reduced rate of tax. On two occasions, she received this advice in writing, but with the explicit warning that it was not expert tax advice and that she should seek a specialist report. Had she done so at the time, as has subsequently happened, she would have been advised to pay the higher rate.

Magnus considers it "highly unfortunate" that Rayner failed to pay the correct tax, especially given her position and responsibility as a minister. While acknowledging her personal integrity and commitment to public service, he notes that she has not met "the highest standards of conduct" required by the ministerial code. Therefore, with "deep regret," he concludes that there was a breach of the rules.

Just minutes before the contents of the report were made public, Rayner announced her resignation. In her resignation letter, she thanks Keir Starmer for the personal and political support she has received—the prime minister endorsed her last Wednesday in the House of Commons—and acknowledges the pressure the controversy has placed on her family. She recalls her achievements in government and states that, for her, holding the position has been an opportunity to change the lives of the people she grew up with. "I will continue to serve the party, our movement, and the country I love," she concludes.

A very combative woman

Rayner is a very popular figure on the party's left because of her background as a single mother and teenager—her son Ryan was born when she was 16—and because she comes from a working-class family, far removed from the institutional and rather moderate Labourism embodied by Starmer. Rayner represented, at least until now, the best of Labour's tradition as a movement for social equality. She also symbolized the party's energy for renewal, with her straightforward discourse and a track record like the one mentioned above that contrasted with the bureaucratic dullness of many leaders. But the scandal has made her a prime target of the right and far right, and in recent days, graffiti accusing her of tax evasion has appeared in front of the new apartment she recently purchased.

The Prime Minister, for his part, responded with a handwritten letter—unusual in these cases—in which he expressed "sadness" at the situation and acknowledged that Rayner had made "the right, albeit painful, decision." Starmer highlighted her contribution to the government and assured her that, despite being out of the executive, she would remain a central figure within the Labour Party. Rayner's departure is a devastating political blow to the Labour government, which thus loses one of its most visible figures.

As deputy prime minister, she wielded real executive influence on key policies such as housing (with Starmer's promise to build 1.5 million new homes) and, as the party's number two, she brought legitimacy to the Labour leadership among its rank and file. Her absence weakens the partnership with Starmer and opens a period of uncertainty in which the narrative of "change" is undermined. In the coming hours, as the nature and new names of the government reshuffle become known, we'll see what direction Starmer takes. For now, he has a bad hand in the making. Among other reasons, Rayner's resignation came hours before the opening of the Reform Party conference this Friday, led by the ultra-Trumpist Nigel Farage, who, in his welcoming speech to delegates, soaked up the crisis in Downing Street.