Angela Rayer reportedly used a company specialising in “wealth protection” to secure the ownership of £650,000 consituency home. Labour’s Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government has become increasingly the focus of anger of her dealings concerning the purchose of houses and her tax affairs.

The Conservatives have referred Ms Rayner to the Prime Minister’s independent adviser on ministers’ interests as a result of the conflicting reports concerning her homes, and stamp duty relating to the recent purchase of a second home she bought in Hove for £800,000. Stamp duty is a tax paid in England and Northern Ireland, when someone buys a property over a certain price.

It’s now been reported Ms Rayner split the ownershop of her £650,000 constituency home in Ashton-under-Lyne with a law firm named Shoosmiths in 2023.

The Mail On Sunday claims the deal with the legal firm would be consistent with placing some of the home’s equity in her trust for her three children. According to the newspaper the Conservatives have now demanded to know if the arrangement with Shoosmiths Trust Corporation offered any inheritance tax benefits in light of reports the Chancellor may raise inheritance tax in her autumn Budget.

Questions have also been raised over if the Deputy Prime Minister was able to avoid some increased council tax on her property in Hove, depending on where she claims she lives in a primary residence as an MP. It has also been claimed Ms Rayner paid around £30,000 in stamp duty on the Hove apartment, the bill would have been £70,000 had the flat been considered a second home, according to the Mail on Sunday.

Tory Party chairman Kevin Hollinrake told the Mail on Sunday Ms Rayner should “come clean on the litany of accusations of tax avoidance – be it stamp duty, council tax or inheritance tax”.

He said: “Tax avoidance may be entirely lawful – and many families will rightly want to minimise their inheritance tax to hand over as much as possible to their children and grandchildren, especially in the face of Labour’s cruel family farms and family business taxes.

“But it’s the height of hypocrisy for a Labour politician who wants to hike property taxes for everyone else, and lectured others on tax avoidance, to appear to be doing the very same.”

Mr Hollindrake added that Ms Rayner should “place all the documents in the public domain” and the independent adviser on ministerial standards should also investigate “as part of his sleaze inquiry”.

Ms Rayner has also faced criticised from some in her own party in recent days. Labour MP Graham Stringer, said: “The optics of it, just before a Budget, doesn’t look good. (Ms Rayner) needs to sort that out and be clear that what she’s doing is genuinely in the public interest.”

A Cabinet Office spokesman said Ms Rayner “has followed advice on the allocation of her official residence at all times”.

A statement provided by the Deputy Prime Minister’s team to the Telegraph said: “The Deputy Prime Minister paid the relevant duty owing on the purchase of the Hove property in line with relevant requirements and entirely properly.

“Any suggestion otherwise is entirely without basis.”

A spokesman for the Deputy Prime Minister told the Mail on Sunday said that she had paid her taxes in full and done nothing wrong.

Express.co.uk approached Shoosmiths for comment.