Sir Keir Starmer will do "everything he can" to save his deputy after she confessed to underpaying stamp duty on her seaside flat.
Angela Rayner referred herself to both the Government’s independent ethics adviser and to HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) after admitting she will have to pay more property tax on her £800,000 flat in Hove.
It is claimed she saved £40,000 in stamp duty on the property because she removed her name from the deeds of a family home in her Ashton-under-Lyne constituency, classifying the Hove flat as her only property despite still spending time at the family house.
The Conservatives have called for the taxman to go further and investigate whether Ms Rayner has evaded tax, which would be illegal.
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch and Reform’s Nigel Farage have both called for the Deputy Prime Minister to resign.
But Sir Keir Starmer is “determined” to save his deputy, according to the Times.
“He wants to do everything he can,” an ally of the Prime Minister told the newspaper.
At Prime Minister’s Questions, Sir Keir gave his backing to Ms Rayner, telling MPs he was “very proud to sit alongside” her.
Ms Rayner, who is also the Housing Secretary, said she had received inaccurate legal advice that led her to underpay tax when buying the flat in May.
FOLLOW BELOW FOR LIVE UPDATES THROUGHOUT THE DAY…
Angela Rayner embroiled in freebie scandal with £1,000 Pride tickets days before stamp duty scandal
The Deputy Prime Minister was gifted five free tickets to Brighton Pride last month
|GETTY
Angela Rayner accepted free tickets to Brighton pride worth £1,100 just days before her stamp duty scandal surfaced, it has been revealed.
The Deputy Prime Minister was gifted a total of five tickets to the event, according to her register of interests.
The tickets were given to Ms Rayner by BN1 Events Collective Ltd on the first day of the pride event on August 2.
They were then registered on August 27, just 24 hours before reports surrounding her new £800,000 flat in Hove emerged.
Angela Rayner could join Your Party if she was sacked from Labour, says Jeremy Corbyn
Former Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn has said Angela Rayner could join his newly founded Your Party if she was sacked.
"I don’t think she’s any plans to join, but obviously anyone is very free to join our party and we welcome them all," Mr Corbyn told Sky News.
The Islington North MP he was "more worried" about housing policy and overcrowding than Ms Rayner's "personal living arrangements".
Mr Corbyn added: "My advice to Keir Starmer is deal with the issues of poverty, homelessness and unregulated private rented sector and tell Angela Rayner to concentrate on that job."
Education Secretary refuses to say if Angela Rayner could remain as Deputy Prime Minister
Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson refused to say if Angela Rayner could stay in her job amid the stamp duty scandal
|GB NEWS
When asked if Angela Rayner could stay in her job amid the stamp duty scandal, Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson told GB News: "Angela Rayner has acknowledged that having acted in good faith she then sought further legal advice and she concluded she had made a mistake that further stamp duty was owed.
"She was more limited on what she could say in public because of the court order that was in place until Tuesday.
"She applied for that order to be lifted so she could speak more openly. She has issued a full statement and given an interview and referred herself to the independent adviser on ministerial standards.
"I think it's right that process now runs, he can look at all the evidence in front of him and reach a conclusion but Angela had believed she had acted appropriately at the first point, it then became clear following expert legal advice that more stamp duty was owed and she is in the process of putting that right with relevant authorities."
WATCH: 'She has got to step down', says Conservative chairman on Angela Rayner
Cabinet minister refuses to say whether Angela Rayner should resign if found in breach of ministerial standards
Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson has declined to say whether the Deputy Prime Minister should resign if she had been found to have breached ministerial standards amid her stamp duty scandal.
Asked whether Ms Rayner should leave her post if the Prime Minister’s standards adviser found she had broken the rules, Ms Phillipson told Times Radio: “I appreciate the answer I’m about to give will be frustrating, but there is a process, I’m not going to pre-judge it.
“It is right now that the independent adviser does his work and provides that outcome.”
She added that the row over Ms Rayner’s tax affairs was not like scandals under the previous government as she had “sought to be transparent” which "has been difficult given that it relates to her family".
Mass migration is 'wrecking British culture', warns Robert Jenrick as he joins call for mass deportations
Robert Jenrick has said mass migration is 'wrecking British culture'
|GETTY
Mass migration is "wrecking British culture" and must be reversed, Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick has said.
Mr Jenrick issued the dire warning in a wide-ranging interview with The Spectator - in which he attacked the Home Office, the ECHR, the "Boriswave" migration surge and both illegal and legal immigration.
"My view is that mass uncontrolled migration has and is wrecking British culture and identity," he told the magazine.
And in a challenge to Nigel Farage's recently-announced plans for mass deportations, Mr Jenrick took aim at "eye-wateringly harmful" levels of legal migration too.