Angela Rayner’s departure is an old-fashioned scalp for the rightwing press

Frustration among deputy PM’s allies that after surviving waves of stories, tax row gave her opponents an open goal

Angela Rayner resigns over stamp duty row

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Angela Rayner’s departure from cabinet marks an abrupt end for a politician who had fought doggedly to reach Labour’s top table. It also represents an old-fashioned scalp for the press, elements of which have been poring over her finances and living arrangements for more than a year.

The frustration among Rayner’s friends is that she had already survived waves of stories aimed at derailing her political career. However, they say her admission that she did not pay the correct stamp duty on the purchase of a Hove flat, which some see as a maddening own goal, gave her opponents a clear opening.