The tawdry saga of Angela Rayner’s £40,000 Stamp Duty dodge over her luxury seaside apartment must now surely be due a scandal nickname - ‘Hovegate’ perhaps.
It began two weeks ago outside a beachside café where one sharp-eyed Daily Mail reader was getting a cup of tea.
Staring down towards the shingle, he spotted a distinctive head of red hair and soon realised that he was looking at the Deputy Prime Minister - except that her style of clothing was distinctly unfamiliar.
Instead of her usual Westminster power-dressing style, Rayner was clad in a camouflage and pink DryRobe, the fashionable £165 essential after-swim attire for middle-class mums, and rather than tea she was drinking what appeared to be rosé from a rather large glass.
Tickled by what he was witnessing - and realising she was a very public figure in a very public place and so fair game , our source discreetly fired off a few photos on his phone and sent them to the Mail.
