Deputy Labour leader Angela Rayner has been accused of wanting to “pull up the ladder” behind her, after it emerged she made thousands from Margaret Thatcher’s Right-to-Buy policy, which she now wants to reform.
Ms Rayner has spoken out against those who get “loads and loads of discount” when buying houses under the Government’s Right-to-Buy policy.
However today it was revealed that the Ashton-under-Lyne MP bought her own former council house with a 25 percent discount in 2007, and cashed out with a five-figure profit just eight years later when selling it at market value.
The revelation, set to be published in a new book by Lord Ashcroft, suggests the outspoken left-winger made a whopping £48,500 profit from the flagship Government housing policy.
Asked about the Right-to-Buy policy last year, Ms Rayner said an incoming Labour government “need to review the way right-to-buy works”.
She even specified that one specific area of review would be “how much of a discount” is on offer to those taking advantage of the system.
Ms Rayner blasted: “If someone’s lived in their property for a long time, they’ve been paying rent and it’s their home, then, yes, right-to-buy it. But that right isn’t that you get loads, loads of discount and we can’t replace the stock”.
This morning working class Teesside Tory MP Jacob Young accused the Labour deputy of “staggering hypocrisy”.
Mr Young told the Mail on Sunday: “Having personally benefited from the right-to-buy discount, she now wants to pull up the ladder on other council tenants wanting to buy their home”.
“Not only that, she appears to have moved into a second home only two years later, also bought under right-to-buy. These revelations raise serious questions about her suitability for office.”
While a Labour spokesman said ms Rayner’s house purchase had been “done by the book”, they quickly turned fire on biographer Lord Ashcroft, accusing the “Belize-based Tory billionaire” of taking “an unhealthy interest in Angela’s family”.
MORE TO COME…
