Angela Rayner's potential 'payout' for resigning scolded by Taxpayers' Alliance: 'She's a complete hypocrite!'

Announcing her departure today, the ex-Deputy Prime Minister declared she takes "full responsibility for this error" after a flurry of controversy over her tax affairs.

In her resignation letter, Ms Rayner told the Prime Minister: "While the Independent Adviser has concluded that I acted in good faith and with honesty and integrity throughout, I accept that I did not meet the highest standards in relation to my recent property purchase."

Delivering his verdict on the resignation, Mr Yarwood told GB News: "No quite frankly, she shouldn't get a payout. I'll sympathise with her on one level, in the sense that stamp duty is a horrible tax.

"It basically sums up the housing market, it pushes housing prices up even higher, and we at the Taxpayers' Alliance have been calling to abolish it for a very long time. But no, she shouldn't be getting this payout at all.

In a sharp criticism of Ms Rayner, Mr Yarwood fumed: "She's a complete hypocrite. When she was in the opposition, she constantly moaned and whinged about the hypocrisy and sleaze of Tory MPs and yet, when it came to her own finances and her own life, she ended up just being as bad as the MPs she used to criticise and call names and all sorts of other horrible things.

"So no, quite frankly, she shouldn't get this payout at all. And I hope she goes back to the backbenches with complete and utter disgrace."

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS:

• Keir Starmer's cabinet reshuffle handed scathing verdict by top pollster: 'Won't fix fundamentals!'
  
• Martin Daubney shuts down ex-Labour candidate after denying cabinet shuffle 'nightmare'
• Lee Anderson quips Rayner 'got financial advice from Diane Abbott' just hours after resignation

Weighing in on Angela Rayner's position on the backbenches, GB News host Christopher Hope argued: "She goes back to the backbenches as someone who says she will support the Prime Minister. Some would say she is the Queen over the water, she could become a critic.

"She may find she wants to speak up, though, on issues which the Taxpayers' Alliance are concerned about, notably the decision due later this year on whether the Government will lift the two-child benefit cap, and she may be a rallying point for the left, just as this new party is formed by Jeremy Corbyn."

Mr Yarwood responded: "There's a big question about whether Rayner is going to become a bit of a pain in the backside. One of the reasons Keir Starmer kept her in the cabinet in the first place is the fact that she is friendly with the left of the party.

"She's likeable, she's got a personality, she's seen as someone who was to some extent part of that Corbyn project, but is happy to be part of the Starmer project as well, for unity reasons and to get things that she wants through."

He added: "But now she's gone and has been replaced with David Lammy of all people as Deputy Prime Minister. Starmer has got rid of Rayner and she's going to cause I think a decent bit of trouble in the back."

Criticising Keir Starmer's cabinet reshuffle, Mr Yarwood concluded that the idea that it will change the perspective of the Labour Government is "for the birds".

He said: "I'll tell you one thing, the idea that this is going to change anything about this current Labour Government is for the birds. Starmer has just reshuffled his cabinet around, basically not really adding any new faces.

"And it's like rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. Quite frankly, his Government is already in crisis, and he talks about this being phase two, well, if this is phase two, we're only a few days into it, my God, what is phase three going to look like?"