Could a kitchen renovation come to Angela Rayner’s rescue?

If you’ve struggled to keep up with the saga over the deputy Labour leader’s council house, James Moore offers an easy explainer – and reveals how doing up the place before she sold it may put her in the clear

In 2007, Angela Rayner bought her Stockport council house under the ‘right-to-buy’ scheme for £79,000 (Getty)

By now, you will have heard about Angela Rayner and her little local difficulty around whether or not she paid the right amount of tax on the sale of a property she once owned in Stockport before she became an MP. You’ll have heard all about it – shall we call it council housegate? – but, unless you’ve paid as close attention to the ins and outs as, say, journalists on right-wing newspapers, you may have struggled to comprehend what Labour’s deputy leader is alleged to have done wrong, allegations that she has denied.

It’s a twisty-turny tale but here’s the short version: while working as a local council care worker and official for Unison, Rayner bought the council house where she was living in Vicarage Road, Stockport. The purchase, in 2007, qualified for a 25 per cent discount under the “right-to-buy” scheme, so she paid £79,000 for it. I know, I know – given today’s house prices, that looks like witchcraft.

She subsequently sold it, in 2015, for £127,500, apparently netting a tidy profit of £48,500. (We’ll get to that.)