Angela Rayner hits back after being branded ‘hypocrite’ over council house sale: ‘I’m not ashamed’

Sign up for the View from Westminster e-mail for professional evaluation straight to your inbox

Get our free View from Westminster e-mail

Angela Rayner has hit back at criticism over the sale of a former council house she purchased beneath the right-to-buy coverage, declaring: “I am not ashamed.”

The Labour deputy chief was criticised for turning a £48,500 revenue on the property in Stockport, Greater Manchester, which she purchased in 2007 with a 25 per cent low cost.

She has beforehand criticised those that get “loads and loads of discount” when buying properties beneath Margaret Thatcher’s right-to-buy scheme.

After the revelation, in a brand new e book by billionaire Tory Lord Ashcroft, Tory MPs accused Ms Rayner of eager to “pull up the ladder” on different council tenants who need to purchase their very own houses.

A report, on the entrance web page of the Mail on Sunday which is serialising the e book, additionally questioned the place Ms Rayner was dwelling after her 2010 marriage to Mark Rayner.

Ms Rayner hit back at what she known as Lord Ashcroft’s “unhealthy interest” in her household life. She additionally accused the previous Tory deputy chairman of eager to “kick down at people like me who graft hard in tough circumstances to get on in life”.

And Ms Rayner, who can be Labour’s shadow housing secretary, defended the social gathering’s insurance policies, saying that “those who live in a council house should have the opportunity to own their own home”.

“We’ve said we’ll review the unfair additional market discounts of up to 60 per cent the Tories introduced in 2012, long after I was able to exercise the right to buy (25 per cent) under the old system,” Ms Rayner mentioned. “That’s not hypocrisy, it’s the right thing to do.”

In a defiant submit on X, Ms Rayner added: “Being able to buy my council house back in 2007 was a proud moment for me. I worked hard, saved and bought it by the book.

“I’m not ashamed – but I am angry that the Tories have since put the dream of a secure home out of reach for so many others.

“It’s clear that Lord Ashcroft and his friends not only take an unhealthy interest in my family – but want to kick down at people like me who graft hard in tough circumstances to get on in life. I won’t let them.”

It is barely Ms Rayner’s newest brush with the Mail on Sunday, which two years in the past printed a sexist article in regards to the Labour deputy supposedly making an attempt to “distract” Boris Johnson by crossing and uncrossing her legs within the chamber.

The article led to the speaker of the House of Commons summoning the editor of the paper to “discuss the issue affecting our parliamentary community”.

Ms Rayner is an outspoken left-winger and has lengthy been a goal of usually sexist abuse from the proper.

Born in Stockport, in Greater Manchester, in 1980, she was raised on a council property by her mom Lynn, who struggled with despair and will not learn or write. From a younger age, the MP acted as a carer for her mom, at instances having to wash and feed her.

And Ms Rayner has spoken movingly about being instructed she would “never amount to anything” after turning into pregnant at 16 and leaving faculty with none {qualifications}.