𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

Fury has erupted after Angela Rayner was handed back her old job running housing – just months after being ousted in a tax scandal involving the purchase of a home. Property experts have branded the move a “slap in the face” to taxpayers across the country after new Prime Minister Andy Burnham announced the comeback.

The former Manchester Mayor confirmed the change after purging Starmer allies from his top team yesterday. Yet industry experts have blasted the appointment, tearing into the returned housing chief in a series of damning remarks.

Speaking to Newspage, Craig Fish, director at Lodestone Mortgages, said: “This feels like a slap in the face to anyone who plays by the rules.

“She resigned over an underpaid stamp duty bill on her own home, then gets handed back the exact department that writes housing and stamp duty policy.”

Anita Wright, of Ribble Wealth Management, said the appointment was “moral hazard in a sash and rosette”.

She added: “The problem isn’t that people make mistakes, it’s that at the top, mistakes have stopped costing anything.”

Harvey Dhillon, of Zmartly, warned ordinary taxpayers face brutal penalties for the same error.

He said: “Whatever you think of the politics, that is a two-tier message about tax.”

Rohit Kohli, of The Mortgage Stop, said: “This looks like loyalty being rewarded, not competence being recognised.”

Ms Rayner was forced to quit as deputy prime minister and housing secretary last September after she had admitted underpaying stamp duty on her £800,000 bolt-hole in Hove.

The tax storm forced her out of Cabinet in disgrace and she only settled up with HMRC in May this year.

Ms Rayner coughed up £40,000 in unpaid stamp duty after an investigation and now, barely ten months later, she is back running the very department in charge of housing and stamp duty policy.

The new Housing chief has insisted she was “exonerated” by HMRC and always acted “in good faith”.

But critics say the taxman’s verdict counts for little when the woman who dodged stamp duty is once again writing Britain’s stamp duty rules.