Lawyers used by Angela Rayner to buy a flat she has admitted underpaying stamp duty on have denied giving her tax advice in a fresh blow to the Deputy Prime Minister as she battles for her political future.
The Deputy Prime Minister has said incorrect "advice from lawyers" led her to pay too little tax when she purchased the £800,000 property in Hove this year.
Sources close to Ms Rayner said a conveyancer and two experts in trust law had all suggested the amount of stamp duty she paid on the property was correct and she acted on the advice she was given at the time.
But the conveyancing firm, Verrico and Associates, on Thursday said its lawyers "never" gave Ms Rayner tax advice and were being made "scapegoats".
Amid the mounting storm Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer declined to say whether he will sack his deputy if she is found to have broken the ministerial code.
The Prime Minister had firmly backed his deputy earlier in the week after she admitted she had by “mistake” failed to pay the correct stamp duty by tens of thousands of pounds.
Ms Rayner, who is also the Housing Secretary, has faced days of scrutiny over her tax affairs after allegations she dodged £40,000 in stamp duty payments.
In a statement, Verrico and Associates managing director Joanna Verrico said: “We acted for Ms Rayner when she purchased the flat in Hove. We did not and never have given tax or trust advice. It's something we always refer our clients to an accountant or tax expert for.
“The stamp duty for the Hove flat was calculated using HMRC's own online calculator based on the figures and the information provided by Ms Rayner.
“That's what we used and it told us we had to pay £30,000 based on the information provided to us. We believe that we did everything correctly and in good faith. Everything was exactly as it should be.”
She told the Telegraph: “We probably are being made scapegoats for all this and I have got the arrows stuck in my back to show it. We are not an inexperienced firm, but we're not qualified to give advice on trust and tax matters and we advise clients to seek expert advice on these.”
The Prime Minister said "of course" he will act on the findings of his independent standards adviser looking into whether Ms Rayner broke ministerial rules.
But Sir Keir would not be drawn on whether he would fire his deputy, who is also the Housing Secretary, if Sir Laurie Magnus concludes that a breach occurred.
Ms Rayner referred herself for the standards investigation on Wednesday.
In an interview with the BBC, Sir Keir said he was “expecting a result pretty quickly” from the probe- the findings of which are expected to infiorm whether she can stay in her roles.
"I do want it to be comprehensive ... and then of course I will act on whatever the report is that's put in front of me”, Sir Keir said.
Both Sir Keir and Ms Rayner condemned graffiti outside the Deputy Prime Minister's seaside flat in the wake of her admission she underpaid tax on it.
The word "bitch" along with a much larger sign saying "tax evader!"were pictured on a white wall on the outside of the home on Thursday.
Ms Rayner's spokesperson has called the vandalism "totally unjustifiable and beyond the pale" and said it is a matter for the police.
The Deputy Prime Minister has faced calls for her to resign over her tax “mistake”.
Tory party chairman Kevin Hollinrake has written to the HMRC calling on them to open a tax evasion investigation into her.
Explaining why she had underpaid tax, she said that her son, who is disabled, received a financial award in 2020 and that money was placed in a trust. When she and her now ex-husband divorced in 2023, some of their interest in their home in her Ashton-under-Lyne constituency was transferred to that trust.
She said she sold her remaining stake in the family home, which was her “life savings”, to her son's trust in January and then used that cash to put down the deposit for the new flat near Brighton. She used £160,000 from the trust to buy the £800,000 seafront home, the Telegraph reported.
Standard stamp duty was paid based on advice from lawyers, Ms Rayner said. She is believed to have paid £30,000 on the purchase when the cost should have been £70,000.
The Tories accused her of removing her name from the deed of her family property to dodge paying an extra £40,000.
Ms Rayner added: “With all of the media reports that have been coming out, I took expert counsel advice on all of my affairs to ensure that everything was done proper.
“And that expert counsel said that the advice that I received was inaccurate because of the trust."
Asked whether she had considered resigning over the scandal, the Deputy Prime Minister said on Tuesday she had "spoken to my family about it" and "the number one priority for me and my ex-husband has always been to support our children."
She added: “I feel that it is devastating for me and the fact that the reason why those confidential clauses were in place was to protect my son, who, through no fault of his own, he's vulnerable, he's got this life-changing, lifelong conditions and I don't want him or anything to do with his day-to-day life, to be subjected to that level of scrutiny because it's his and my ex-husband ... it's not fair on them.
"Often my family dragged in because of what my role is and what I do.
"But I try to uphold the high standards, and that's why I've referred myself so that the independent advice can look at everything."
