You don’t have to be a genius to figure out why Angela ‘’three homes’’ Rayner might be prepared to tough out serious charges of hypocrisy which damage both herself and her party, simply to own her £800,000 flat down by the sea.
First of all, she currently has the earnings. As Deputy Leader of the Labour Party and Secretary of State for Housing, she makes £159,584 a year.
A good time to apply for a mortgage, as that money is likely to be plopping into her bank for the next four years. More’s the pity.
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After that, you will be pleased to learn, things look a lot murkier. I confidently predict the election will mark the end of that kind of salary.
The reality, according to all the polls, is that she will lose her Ashton-under-Lyne constituency to Reform, where she only had an 8,000 majority over them at the 2024 election.
So not only does the £159,000 pay disappear, but so does the £93,904 as an MP. After you with the handkerchief.
What then for Ms Rayner? I can’t imagine how short the queue will be to hire her. Only Starmer’s will be shorter. Or possibly Reeves.
Her CV is horrific. Here’s a Labour politician who, along with her colleagues, has bankrupted the nation, refused to stop the influx of illegal migrants and presided over a housing ministry which called for a clampdown on second homes but whose boss had three homes.
Who would want an employee like that on your payroll? She knows that.
Rayner's new £800k flat will make a nice retirement home when she loses her £159k salary to Reform - Kelvin MacKenzie | Getty Images
So, she starts thinking about where she wants to live when unemployed and turning 50. Her £650,000 Manchester home was not the solution.
A former MP who ruined the country would surely receive nothing but abuse in Ashton-under-Lyne if she walked down the high street.
A bolthole 350 miles away in Hove was the answer. So, Mystic Mac believes she will sell up in the North when slung out of Parliament and plans to live quietly by the seaside, making a meagre living through appearances on BBC political shows.
That’s the plan anyway. I don’t believe it works out like that. The public will be furious that the entire messaging from Labour is that owning a second home is so bad that local authorities are right to charge double council tax on them.
If you are wealthy, you may well be able to afford that 100 per cent increase in council tax. But not everybody is on £159,000, and in popular seaside towns all over the country, there has been a flood of second homes going on the market because the owners can’t afford the penalty. There are so many for sale, the prices have collapsed, but still, they don’t sell.
But Ms Rayner has spare money in her wallet because when she stays in London for her political duties, it doesn’t cost her a penny. No rent and no council tax. You pay that as it has been designated her official residence.
What is bizarre is that Ms Rayner’s allies are claiming that she bought the three-bedroomed flat in Hove as a base near London. It’s 50 miles from London.
Personally, I’m massively in favour of second homes. I am not in favour of Ms Rayner having one since her deputy Housing Minister, Matthew Pennycook, has attacked them on the basis that they affect local services.
How could that possibly be? They use fewer services because they spend less time there, meaning there is more money for those who need them. It’s tosh.
Hopefully, Mr Farage will ban the double council tax when he comes to power.
Pollsters are saying what the voters hate above all else is hypocrisy, and that Labour may well pay a high price for that luxury flat. I really hope so.