British Deputy Prime Minister and Housing Minister Angela Raynor resigned on Monday after admitting she underpaid tax on her new house, Reuters reported, BTA reported.
Raynor is the eighth member of Prime Minister Keir Starmer's cabinet to leave office. Starmer declared his full support for Raynor when she was initially accused of deliberately trying to avoid paying the appropriate rate of tax on her newly acquired property.
“I deeply regret my decision not to seek further specialist tax advice... I take full responsibility for this mistake“, Raynor wrote in a letter to Starmer.
In response, he said he was saddened that her term in government had come to an end in this way, but the decision to step down was the right one.
Starmer's Labour Party is trailing Nigel Farage's Reform UK (formerly the Brexit Party) in opinion polls. The prime minister now faces new problems as he tries to rebuild his authority and the party's image, which have been damaged by allegations that Starmer accepted expensive gifts, including clothes and concert tickets, from donors.
Raynor, who rose from a working-class teenager to one of Britain's most senior political positions, has been able to mediate between the left and center wings of Labour to keep the party united, and has enjoyed wider popularity than Starmer, Reuters points out.
In an interview, Raynor said she had set up a trust for one of her sons, who is permanently disabled as a result of an injury.
She sold her share of a family estate in northern England to the trust and bought an apartment in the English seaside resort of Hove, thinking she would not have to pay the higher tax rate that applies to buying a second home. home.
After seeking further legal advice, she said she had made a mistake and was taking steps to pay the additional tax.
The resignation of eight ministers and deputy ministers in Starmer's government, which has been in power since July last year, represents the largest number of resignations at the start of a government term since at least 1979.