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I have a great deal of sympathy for Rayner. She seems to have made a genuine mistake with respect to a rather arcane and counterintuitive aspect of the rules around stamp duty. She was only in this complex situation because of a tragic family health situation. I think many people in her situation might have made the same error - it's one of those situations where you might never have thought to ask for formal legal advice because the potential problem would simply not be apparent.
Still, the world of politics is not fair, and having criticized others for tax avoidance she has to be like Ceasar's wife with respect to her own tax affairs. I don't think she can survive this. But I hope she will be back after a suitable period in the wilderness, because she is a fundamentally decent and honest person with a compelling backstory and an all too rare working class voice in politics.

Does anyone know who gave the Telegraph information on Angela's tax affairs?
That would surely be a more interesting inquiry into misogamy than yet another investigation into men trying to weedle their way into womens toilsts for a perversion that no one has ever come across.

There are some sick rightwing journals and TV stations around at the moment that hate the idea of an uppity lefty woman with a bit of spirir. We've seen it with 'Rachel in accounts' and we're seeing it with 'Angela from Ashton'.

For what it's worth I can't see who in her position would have done anything differently. She had no financial interest in her old house so would have just paid what her conveyancer had told her she owed.

When everyone was attacking Zahawi over his tax affairs was that misandry or maybe racism?

Do you think maybe people just don’t like politicians who might have been stupid, especially ones who have spent years attacking opponents fiercely and demanding resignations non-stop for errors etc, regardless of sex or background.

Do you wonder where the Telegraph got their information about Rayner's tax affairs. Do you think they would do a similar dig into farage's bank previous house living arrangements trust's for his children? I don't. I don't think they'd have dared. She's an easy target. She doesn't know the best lawyers. She can't plant a writ on them as soon as she gets word they're up to their usual crap. I happen not to be a fan of Rayner but the Telegraph Express and Mail make me want to vomit

Bullshit about not having access to top lawyers if she wanted. She literally works in government with at least two people who will know everybody and makes £160k a year so can afford them. She is also friends with big people in the union movement who are also well versed in finding top legal representation.

Does anyone know who gave the Telegraph information on Angela's tax affairs?
That would surely be a more interesting inquiry into misogamy than yet another investigation into men trying to weedle their way into womens toilsts for a perversion that no one has ever come across.

There are some sick rightwing journals and TV stations around at the moment that hate the idea of an uppity lefty woman with a bit of spirir. We've seen it with 'Rachel in accounts' and we're seeing it with 'Angela from Ashton'.

For what it's worth I can't see who in her position would have done anything differently. She had no financial interest in her old house so would have just paid what her conveyancer had told her she owed.

When everyone was attacking Zahawi over his tax affairs was that misandry or maybe racism?

Do you think maybe people just don’t like politicians who might have been stupid, especially ones who have spent years attacking opponents fiercely and demanding resignations non-stop for errors etc, regardless of sex or background.

Were I the Ethics investigator (oh please, God, one last job?!) I'd want to have the complete file from Shoosmiths, the complete file from Verrico, the conveyancers, all other correspondence AR or anyone on her behalf had with any other advisor on this matter and an interview with AR herself to ask her the questions I have outlined above at a minimum. It might also be necessary to speak to the relevant solicitors & conveyancers

Now if you can get those quickly and you have the time and resources to read everything, prepare the interviews, do them, get an accurate record of them written up, consider the evidence, get any tax advice needed, consider the Ministerial Code, assess whether this was cock up or deliberate and any mitigating circumstances and then write your report and you're prepared to work pretty much round the clock etc etc, you can probably do this in a couple of days or so. A stretch but doable.

But does the Ethics advisor have those resources and will he in fact do this? And if he doesn't read and review all the evidence what value will his report actually have?

DEAR GOVERNMENT - GET INVESTIGATORS IN WHO KNOW HOW TO DO THE FUCKING JOB. THAT SUE GRAY WOMAN WAS USELESS.