Is 'Two Homes' Rayner paying council tax on her second residence? 

Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner was last night facing questions over whether she is paying her own council tax surcharge on her second home.

‘Two Homes’ Rayner moved into her four-bedroom, grace-and-favour residence in Admiralty House in December – four months before her Local Government Department started levying an extra 100 per cent council tax charge on second homes.

Official records of MPs’ expenses show that when she entered the Government, Ms Rayner designated her Ashton-under-Lyne constituency home as her ‘primary residence’, and her pre-Admiralty home – a rented London flat – as her second home.

That allowed her to claim back the £1,621 council tax bill on the London flat from the taxpayer as one of the housing costs reimbursed by Commons authorities.

But if she is still designating Ashton as her primary residence now, the £2,034 council tax bill for Admiralty House doubles to a whopping £4,068 if classed as a second home.