Watch: Tetchy Starmer wriggles over Rayner’s tax affairs

Angela Rayner appears unable to shake off questions about her tax affairs — literally. And now in an interview with ITV Granada, even Sir Keir Starmer’s confidence in his deputy doesn’t seem to be watertight. The media attention on his second-in-command continues after weeks of speculation about whether Rayner avoided capital gains tax on her council house and broke electoral law. The deputy Labour leader has refused to make her tax details public and Starmer hasn’t even seen the legal advice she received on the matter himself. So much for due diligence…

When asked by interviewer Andrew Misra if he was ‘100 per cent confident Angela Rayner’s done nothing wrong’, the Labour leader gave a clipped response, becoming rather tetchy in the process…

KS: I’m very confident…

AM: 100 per cent confident?

KS: I’m very confident that…

AM: That’s different from 100 per cent confident.

KS: Look, don’t try and play a game on this. I’ve been absolutely clear, Angela’s answered all those questions.