How HMRC could turn the leadership ambitions of Angela into ashes – politicalbetting.com
How HMRC could turn the leadership ambitions of Angela into ashes – politicalbetting.com
Anyone who has dealt with HMRC in the last few years will know the infuriatingly slow place of HMRC so this story will be familiar. Angela Rayner is trying to out the issues of her tax minimisation strategies that led to her resignation as Deputy Prime Minister because she and her colleagues know she cannot run whilst this investigation isn’t resolved, as The Telegraph reports
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https://x.com/rpsagainsttrump/status/2019644111595475407?s=61&t=LYVEHh2mqFy1oUJAdCfe-Q
Starmer has nowhere to hide if so.
If she has leadership ambitions, why is she quibbling. Simply pay the tax.
Clearly though she can forget any thoughts of a leadership challenge until this HMRC issue is sorted out .
And of course she’s very polarising with a large section of the public unwilling to forgive or forget her recent transgression.
The Labour membership is altogether different and if she can sort out that tax issue in time no doubt she would be favourite to win .
I for one really like her and all these accusations that she’s too thick or too gobby to be PM ignore the parade of recent PMs who were apparently so educated but have crashed and burned .
That's the issue.
Alekseyev is a senior figure in the main directorate of Russia's military general staff (GRU) and is the latest high-ranking military figure to have been targeted in the capital since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine began almost four years ago.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c3686nzexp3o
She's probably up to her eyes in debt and living off credit cards and overdraft...
https://x.com/grok/status/2019657672774070440?s=61&t=LYVEHh2mqFy1oUJAdCfe-Q
On-topic: I'm unsurprised Rayner's keen to get her hands on another property.
Certainly not the cabinet leaks, since no one knew about that until now.
The relationship itself was common knowledge, and it's utterly absurd to pretend otherwise.
A fair percentage of those now baying for Starmer's blood waxed lyrical over the appointment at the time (the Mail's Hodge, for example).
The Epstein file release didn't substantially alter what we knew:
Peter Mandelson swears at reporter after question on Epstein relationship (Feb 2025)
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/feb/06/peter-mandelson-swears-at-reporter-after-question-on-epstein-relationship
Peter Mandelson told a reporter to “fuck off” when asked about his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.
He was questioned about his links with the billionaire paedophile in an interview with the Financial Times as he prepares to become Britain’s ambassador to Washington. However, he told the reporter in no uncertain terms that he did not want to discuss it.
Lord Mandelson said: “I regret ever meeting him or being introduced to him by his partner Ghislaine Maxwell.
“I regret even more the hurt he caused to many young women.
“I’m not going to go into this. It’s an FT obsession and frankly you can all fuck off. OK?”
The pair’s connections have raised questions since a 2019 internal report on Epstein by JP Morgan bank was filed to a New York court.
It found Epstein appeared to “maintain a particularly close relationship with Prince Andrew, the Duke of York and Lord Peter Mandelson, a senior member of British government”...
https://www.reuters.com/world/norway-police-open-investigation-into-ex-prime-minister-jagland-over-epstein-2026-02-05/?link_source=ta_bluesky_link&taid=69852f4c2f05bd0001797036&utm_campaign=trueanthem&utm_medium=social&utm_source=bluesky
Everywhere but the USA politicians are falling like skittles.
If she can’t run her own household without getting into financial trouble, what chance her running the country?
Can we imagine her turning up to a meeting with Trump or Xi, and be taken remotely seriously?
It's inevitable that it would cost us something, since we're not contributing to the EU fund.
Without a lot more information (not something I'd expect the Telegraph to be able to provide), it's impossible to tell whether that headline figure is a good, average or horrible deal (or even exactly what it represents).
One of the things that humans process really badly is situations where cause and effect are separated by decades. Minute-by-minute Permanews just makes that worse.
From whom, where or just wishful thinking ?
https://www.25newsnow.com/2026/02/05/par-a-dice-redevelopment-plan-agenda-illinois-gaming-board-meeting/
I genuinely think that the last decade of social media has led to no-one of substance having any interest in politics.
If Starmer was to fall, I’d support someone like John Healey to take over.
You should know there are some on here who don't like Labour very much - perhaps you hadn't noticed...
Why even bother with vetting by your logic?
It isn't possible to care about everything all the time. It is one of the functions of multi party democracy and a free media that each individual like me delegates nearly all the planet to the scrutiny and action of government/parliament, the scrutiny of the many bodies and institutions who look hard at stuff (of which there are legions) and to the hard stare of the media.
Trust and competence are central to the project; misinformation and single issue fanaticism is sand in its engine; some of the reasons we are in a bit of a fix.
Maybe the two of them would have something to bond over?
https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/2026/02/04/council-agrees-position-on-legal-framework-to-provide-90-billion-in-financial-support-to-ukraine/
Nobody had Belgium's back when it came to confiscating frozen Russian assets so that scheme is in the ditch.
It's the starting point for Lon Las Cymru, which was why I was there - I spent £35 in the bakers which sustained me to Harlech.
Would you be so enthusiastic to pay money to HMRC if you didn't think you owed it? Why encourage others.
And now we know why. It was career - and possibly freedom - ending.
https://x.com/deanbegley1/status/2019341636103467066?s=20
Apart from the hilarity of GB News not having its finger on the faltering pulse of the zeitgeist, that vividly painted pantomime dame is Anne Diamond! After the recent Jan Leaming brouhaha, what the hell is going on with our female newsreaders? Can we expect the fragrant Anna Ford to pop up in the Epstein files?
https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/116021857490657707
It's a bit like appointing Ian Huntley to be a school caretaker. You discover (under the modern system) that he has no convictions but keeps being investigated for relevant stuff. The red lights flashing inform the depth of your further research and your decision making. With PM, you know, being men of the world, that bad people do multiple bad things in addition to the ones you have found out, so let's make sure.
Okay for Nadim Zahawi to become Chancellor and run for leader / PM
Not OK for Angela Rayner to run for leader / PM
?
I would have thought that was obvious
Centre right of the Party though.
The pair who could emerge as unity candidates with very solid party support and females that scratches the need of some
Thirnberry.
Hillier.
Meg Hillier is a modern day Hattie Harperson in many ways.
The idea of giving it to America (raised before, but raised again yesterday) is a fairly sound one. Trump has made clear he'll nick it anyway if he feels inclined. We cannot sell it to America sadly, because Starmer's shitty deal with Mauritius makes that impossible diplomatically.
Seems a bit imaginative for the Windows-And-Suicide boys.
I’ve written to the PM demanding full transparency on why Matthew Doyle was elevated to the House of Lords despite serious red flags during vetting.
There seems to be a pattern emerging.
https://x.com/kemibadenoch/status/2019699066440183961?s=46&t=CW4pL-mMpTqsJXCdjW0Z6Q
If we've decided now it was a huge mistake to appoint him (it was), that also should have been clear a year ago.
I've no issue with those who said it was a mistake back then. It's the ones who enthusiastically supported the appointment, and are now saying it was an act of great turpitude.
The vetting *in this case* shouldn't have really changed that judgment.
And remember the age old trick I pull, put something really contentious in the video so the other slightly less contentious things are accepted as fact
To make it an offence to appoint someone to work in such a role, without the full & *completed* vetting.
So, every school caretaker, every teacher gets a CRB check (not to mention the enhanced version). My relative, who runs a building company, does a CRB check on his workers - they are in and out of people's houses, after all. Taxi drivers in London get an enhanced CRB.
Would Mandy have passed an enhanced CRB?
EDIT: emails are close to public domain. The security services (in every country) have been recording them for many, many years. A dig in that database would have been simple and easy. Was it done?
Rayner is no sort of bad person I am sure. But as with Zahawi and his careless overlooking of the £5,000,000 he owed the HMRC, the lack of clear legal cover and lack of consultation with HMRC over the stamp duty thing means that a red light flashes about judgment and competence. This is sadly a disqualification. Being squeaky clean, and how you approach ensuring you are are equally important.
As to betting on next Labour leader - which really is a Novices' Hurdle not a Derby - a guess is that the winner has to be: squeaky clean, a woman, serious, with decent political antennae, good at narrative which makes words mean something.
Might Cooper be value?
It’s hard to see beyond Streeting and Rayner for very good reasons. They, for different reasons, are the best communicators in the Party.
I like the idea of a PM with an authentic working class background who has overcome extreme adversity to get to the top. Any foreign leader worth their salt would take seriously someone who has, although some are obviously not worth their salt. I wouldn't blame her for looking down on those born with a silver spoon in their mouth, like Trump.
Growing belief amongst some of the more sensible unblinkered Lobby Journalists that McSweeney was leaving post in March, before locals to return to HQ role for locals and beyond.
New CoS already chosen, reported by Sky and Guardian.
Suspect he'll go after half term period a few days early.
Bigger issue emerging is the battle between the Met Pol and CPS and Speaker of the House and how battle lines draw up.
Met Police very much playing standard legal procedure of vital not to possibly contaminate evidence in to public domain.
Speaker saying Parliament can overrule.
My questions are this
Is a Committee deemed to be watertight safe in terms of non disclosure. You can imagine pressure rabid tight Press will put on Members?
As importantly how do likes of Badenoch, Davey, SNP play this. They should be very very cautious not to have the arrogance to believe that they are above the Law. I would imagine some Tory grandees like Davis, Grieve etc will be very hostile if Kamikaze Kemi who always knows best sidles up for a fight with the Met.
Farage coincidentally is playing more of a waiting game, whether that's due to his links to Epstein or legally prudent or both will be interesting to watch.
On topic. It may suit Ange and Starmer, who I and many think her and Hillier intervened to protect on Wednesday if Hmrc don't publish for a few months early June after locals may be ideal for them.
There are plenty on opposition benches who have far greater hmrc and more politically based skeletons in their cupboards than ange.
Interesting and not at all clear cut what happens next
Btw
Clevedon Labour hold in County and area Tories should be winning back seats in a crushing blow and clear sign Tories are in deep deep electoral dooh
I thought the appointment was a mistake, at the time.
Another thing that wasn't in the public domain was the political angle - Mandy was known to be indiscreet in the face of wealth.
But the revelation that he'd been systematically handing over information from the very heart of government, within minutes of receiving it was new. As was the recipe of money by him and his SO from Epstein. As was him giving advice on how to force the hand, on policy, of the government of which he was a part
The cherry on top was the derogatory attitude towards his colleagues.
I think this revelation was the straw that broke the political dimension of this so thoroughly - Mandy, in the views of just about everyone, betrayed the government, the Labour party and the national interest. Which is why there is not political support left to slow down or redact embarrassing information.
The mind boggles as to what might potentially come out of that in the form of incidental remarks and the like.
It's not the Tories' fault that Rayner might become PM...
The journalist and author Ben McIntyre is particular hot on this. It's certainly true that unless things have changed a lot since the days of Philby and Blunt there really is no point in vetting anyone. The Mandelson fiasco does suggest that things haven't changed that much.
Rayner would be a better campaigner than Starmer no doubt and she she would rally the left more behind her as Corbyn did but she would turn off centrist swing voters and in terms of actual competence for the job Starmer would be better. Sir Keir was himself raised in a relatively working class household and through sheer hard work did manage to get to university and an Oxford postgrad degree and the bar and KC and on that basis if it were a choice between Rayner or keeping Starmer I would keep him
He's jumped out of the Overton window. And is wingsuiting to the horizon.
Granted she is a pin up girl of Antipidean Farmers for giving them an agricultural trade agreement that they are still mssturbsting over, her arrogance and ego and argumentative tendencies would be a disaster when diplomacy is key
Add in the disgraced Mossad Agent the MP for Witham and Tel Aviv and it's crystal clear that the UK would be globally ridiculed by a Tory Government
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ckgykp79ezyo
YAWN...
Ed D needs to step aside
Now we don't vet, because they are Proper People.
If we can manage to have a register for struck off NHS Managers, perhaps we can enforce vetting on all government appointments above a certain level.
If the PM wants to hire X, he gets a fat file on X. Complete with the list of concerns. The PM can initial next to each concern, that he has seen it and it's all fine.
*Which weren't
However, in electoral terms, the opinions on the choice of potential Labour leaders that matter are from those who might consider voting Labour at the next general election.
As a potential PM, Streeting is viewed more favourably than some of the other candidates by those who would never contemplate voting for Labour in 2029 whatever the leader, but their views don't really matter in electoral terms.