Angela Rayner 'will focus on facts not gossip' amid ex-council house row

Angela Rayner 'will focus on facts rather than gossip' in the ongoing row over her living arrangements, shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said.

Greater Manchester Police has launched an investigation into whether the Ashton-under-Lyne MP broke electoral law over information she gave about her living situation a decade ago. The deputy leader of the Labour Party previously said she did nothing wrong when declaring her main residence, and insisted she followed the rules when selling her ex-council house in Stockport in 2015 - before she became an MP.

Questions have been asked about whether the property was her main home, as well as if she paid the right amount of tax on the sale. Ms Rayner has promised to resign if she is found to have committed a crime over the accusations, but said she 'followed the rules at all times'.

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Ms Cooper told BBC One's Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg that Ms Rayner is 'very keen' to set out the facts to police and HMRC. She said: "It allows her to set out all the facts not the sort of gossip, not the different allegations that we've had from Conservative MPs.

"We understand this is the run-up to local elections, we have seen this before as we saw with the Durham case as well. This is obviously about her family arrangements, her personal finances, and that's really how it should be dealt with instead."

This comes after the Sunday Times reported that her former aide said there was 'no doubt in my mind that this was Ms Rayner's family home' when he visited her at what she says was her husband's address in 2014. In a statement issued on Friday evening, Ms Rayner said she was 'completely confident' that she 'followed the rules