The United States government tracks the likelihood of nuclear war on a 1-5 scale called “DEFCON” (DEFCON 1 means Armageddon is imminent). Did you know that somewhat more parochially, the British government tracks social class on the “National Statistics Socio-economic Classification”, or NS-SEC?
This eight-point scale, first deployed in the 2021 UK census, is used to assign every individual in Britain a numerical value defining their social class: 1 means “higher managerial and professional occupations” — the bottom end of the scale, 8, means “never worked or long-term unemployed”. Naturally, only the British government could develop such an elaborate system for the measurement of class. While other societies are preoccupied with workaday issues like the imminence of the end of the world, the British are obsessed with whether one’s neighbours are a 4 or a 3.
As Angela Rayner is currently finding out, you can get away with pretty much anything on the British Left today except rising from 8 up to 1 on the NS-SEC. The Deputy Prime Minister has admitted to underpaying stamp duty on an £800,000 flat in Hove, a move which reeks of the sort of legal tax evasion typical of 1s and that instantly makes Labour politicians a target inside their own party
Very few politicians make it all the way up the scale. But Rayner, through a combination of tenacity, actual talent (in trade union politics at least) and sheer bloodymindedness has done just that. I think she is probably unique in the modern Labour elite as having made it from an 8 start in life to a 1. In so doing, she has broken an important but unwritten social rule that must be obeyed by those who would seek to ascend the scale: the one thing a lefty from a background in “routine occupations” (a former care worker, for instance) must not do when they become Deputy Prime Minister is own multiple homes.
Just as they are fascinated with class, the British chattering set are fascinated by home ownership. “God forbid”, they huff, that Angela Rayner — who started in life as a self-defined working-class woman, who was also pregnant at 16 — should rise to the second highest political office in the land and have the temerity to collect multiple homes along the way. Let’s look at the facts. She currently has the use of three. But one of those is the grace and favour flat she enjoys in Admiralty Arch. This is not properly “her” house — she will have to give it back when Labour implodes soon enough, a moment I believe will make the end of the Tory years look like a relaxing spa break.
Just as they are fascinated with class, the British chattering set are fascinated by home ownership
So, reasonably, let’s take her government property off the table. That leaves two. In many if not most countries in the world, it would be considered a bit of a joke if the second most powerful politician only owned two houses — but we are in Britain, so let’s accept that second home ownership is far from the norm and likely to elicit acidic jealousy from all comers.
If media reports are to be believed, she owns a house in her constituency of Ashton-under-Lyne and a flat in Hove. The purchase of her Hove apartment has triggered the latest scandal — it’s alleged she (legally) tax planned that purchase to avoid £40,000 in stamp duty, by removing her name from the deeds of the Ashton-under-Lyne house before the transaction.
After a calamitous interview with Sky News this week, she has now referred herself to the Independent Adviser on Ministerial Standards and HMRC — no doubt partially pushed into that situation by Keir Starmer’s office having ordered legal advice around her predicament (the Prime Minister would love to see the back of his more charismatic deputy). Rayner also put her constituency home in trust, due to complexities around care requirements for her family. I find it difficult to believe that given that situation, any other “1” wouldn’t have also taken the advice of a lawyer, or even a “wealth protection firm” as one newspaper reported.
Perhaps some are offended because they feel former care workers shouldn’t have that kind of advice in their arsenal
So what is the real issue with Rayner’s housing scandal? Perhaps some are offended because they feel former care workers shouldn’t have that kind of advice in their arsenal. Or maybe it’s the size and quality of the Hove apartment that has triggered such a fit of vapours. It does, admittedly, look like an exceptionally nice flat — that said, it must be a bit like living on the socialist riviera, a sort of communist Cap Ferrat.
But that is all a distraction. Even if it turns out she paid the tax due and she is cleared by the investigation, then her and her own party’s hypocrisy will have reached new heights. Of course the Deputy Prime Minister should be allowed to own two homes. But Rayner is driving a very particular agenda through government — including in her other role as the minister responsible for housing — making it much more difficult and expensive for everyone else to own just one, let alone two homes. By generally hiking tax and having criticised policies like previous stamp duty holidays, Rayner is now a key architect of the kind of politics that will make it much harder for first-time buyers to get their foot on the ladder.
If she took inappropriate steps to manage her tax affairs, it’s at least partially related to the environment created by her own policies. I strongly believe Rayner should not be attacked for rising from 8 to 1 on the silly scale — and her opponents should not fall into the trap of classism. But no one is pulling up the ladder more so than the current Labour government, which she could well soon lead.
Ross Kempsell is a Conservative peer
