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 tax default that has come to light these days, opens a crisis with multiple ramifications, at a time when the popularity of the British prime minister is on the floor between the left -wing voters and the threat of the populist right is stronger than ever.
His departure has accelerated the implementation of a remodeling of the Labor Government that political analysts gave for discounted at the end of the summer. The until now Foreign Minister, David Lammy, becomes the new Vice Prime Minister and strong man of Downing Street.
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, around a million dollars), for which he paid a tax of documented legal acts (Stamp Dutyas is 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 his property of the floor they shared in Mercanters. It was the way to ensure that, together with his brothers, he had guaranteed a comfortable future in that home.
Being even a child without the legal age, the English law continues to consider the fiscal purposes that the housing is owned by Rayner – devoted two years ago – and that, therefore, it 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 become complicated for (paradoxically) also Minister of Housing. Initially, Starmer supported her vigorously, believing the initial version that he had received erroneous fiscal advice from at least three professionals before making the purchase.
In the last hours, that advice was no longer so clear and Starmer has decided to condition his final decision to the result of an internal report. The independent government advisor for ethical issues and incompatibilities, 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 (in his report) 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, which has delivered this Friday to the prime minister, once the Magnus report had already reached.
A convulsive period for Starmer is now opened, which loses a heavyweight in his team, and for the Labor Party, who must open a process of choice of the number two at a time when the current to the left of the formation will want to control more power and stop the political and economic decisions of the chief of the Executive.
“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 praised his 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, according to her, went to obtain advice were not fiscal experts or knew the legal entrepreneurship of a figure as complex as the trust (similar to Spanish trust, but not exactly the same).
Government remodeling
The departure of Minister Rayner has forced the advancement of a government remodeling that analysts and media had anticipated all summer.
Starmer needs to give a new boost to his political task, and last week he already changed the hard core of Downing Street, with the appointment of a new chief secretary, a new communication director and an economic advisor to endow his own voice in this area to the prime minister’s office.
The crisis caused with the resignation of this Friday has forced changes of greater draft. The until now Foreign Minister, Lammy, becomes number two of the Government, and will also occupy the Justice portfolio.
The Interior Minister, Yvette Cooper, incinerated for her irregular immigration management, hotels with asylum applicants and even the hard hand response to the prolastin protests in the street, it is nevertheless seen rewarded by Starmer, which has appointed it new Foreign Minister. Shabana Mahmood, the until now Minister of Justice, of Pakistani and good predicament between the Labor Bases will replace you inside. His speech on immigration, despite his origins, has a severe tone that the party’s charges like.
Lucy Powell, the “Commons leader” (a mixture between the Spanish figures of the head of the parliamentary group and Secretary of State for Relations with the Cortes, with ministerial category) has been relegated from the position, after a few months of great internal rebellion in the Labor Bank on account of the approved social cuts.
The Minister for Scotland, Ian Murray, has also abandoned the government, despite its important role in the recovery by the vote labor in that territory, in the face of the predominance of the SNP Scottish nationalists.
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. She came from the hard nucleus of the previous era, when the leader was the leftist veteran, Jeremy Corbyn. Your choice by militants as number two The training strengthened her in her political confrontation with Starmer, who in a pragmatic play not only retained her in her team, but ended up appointing her Vice Prime Minister, a figure that is not mandatory and depends exclusively on the will of the head of government.
Two women, Rayner and the Minister of Economy, Rachel Reeves, became the greatest focus of power of the new Labor Government.
Mother at 16 years
“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 achieving a roof on our heads, as I had to do when I created my children while working. Many people throughout the country pass the same thing,” Rayner written in his resignation letter.
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’s bond, with a rigid and isolated reputation, with some more and more discontent party bases with the direction of the government, both in her economic policy and in matters such as the tragedy of Gaza.
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