DEPUTY Prime Minister Angela Rayner is fighting for her political future after she admitted she had avoided tax on the purchase of her second home in Hove.

After days of denials, Ms Rayner conceded that when she bought the flat it should have been taxed as her second home.

Instead she paid stamp duty as a first home, saving herself around £40,000.

But PM Sir Keir Starmer pledged to stand by his embattled deputy, telling MPs that he was “very proud to sit alongside a deputy prime minister who is building 1.5 million homes, who is bringing the biggest upgrade to workers’ rights for a generation, and has come from a working-class background to be deputy prime minister.”

This would seem to indicate that Ms Rayner is safe for now. However, she has referred herself to the independent adviser on ministerial ethics, whose judgment will be decisive.

She has now told tax authorities she will repay all sums due. As deputy PM she also has access to a third property, a government-owned flat in central London on which she does not pay council tax.