LIVE: Angela Rayner resigns as Deputy Prime Minister and Housing Minister

Angela Rayner has resigned from the government after a row over her failure to pay correct stamp duty on a new flat.

The row has escalated over the Ashton-under-Lyne MP's purchase of an £800,000 seaside apartment in Hove, East Sussex, over recent days.

The Stockport-born Labour MP admitted failing to pay £40,000 in stamp duty, prompting an independent investigation into her tax affairs.

Rayner will now leave the Government, the PA news agency understands. The BBC is also reporting she has resigned.

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Ms Rayner had referred herself for an ethics investigation on Wednesday as she admitted failing to pay the correct stamp duty.

She said she had initially been advised that she was not liable for the second property surcharge because she had sold her stake in her family home in Ashton-under-Lyne to a court-instructed trust established in 2020 to benefit her disabled son.

But she conceded she had made a 'mistake' after fresh legal advice from a 'leading tax counsel' later revealed that she was liable for the extra duty on her new Hove flat - after allies and colleagues had previously insisted she did pay the correct tax.

And on Thursday, the conveyancing firm she used - Verrico and Associates - insisted its lawyers 'never' gave Ms Rayner tax advice and were being made 'scapegoats'.

The independent ethics adviser assessed whether Ms Rayner broke the ministerial rules, which place an 'overarching duty on ministers to comply with the law', 'behave in a way that upholds the highest standards of propriety', and 'be as open as possible' with the public.

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