Ashcroft urges Angela Rayner to address housing arrangements in forthcoming memoir

LONDON — Lord Michael Ashcroft has urged Angela Rayner to use her forthcoming autobiography to set the record straight about her housing arrangements, arguing the book should lay out publicly documented details dating back to 2007. Rayner, who served as deputy prime minister before resigning amid a stamp-duty controversy tied to her £800,000 seaside home in Hove, confirmed last week that she has signed a deal to write an 'authentic' memoir about her rise from working-class roots to the Cabinet.

The ghostwritten memoir could fetch a six-figure advance and comes as Labour leadership speculation swirls around Sir Keir Starmer and Rayner’s own leadership ambitions. The project underscores how personal history and public records remain a focus as political futures unfold in the aftermath of the Hove property matter.

The questions about Rayner’s housing arrangements stretch back to 2007, when she bought an ex-council house under the right-to-buy scheme and later moved between properties in what observers described as a pattern that attracted attention. The Mail on Sunday popularized the nickname “Two Homes Rayner” after reports that she split residence between her own home and another property owned by her then-husband, with neighbors contending she rented out her house while living elsewhere. A police investigation at the time concluded that no criminal offences had occurred, but Lord Ashcroft noted that questions remained about the information listed in public documents and how it was reconciled.

In commentary accompanying his own biography of Rayner published last year, Ashcroft highlighted the earlier property profits, including a £48,500 gain on the ex-council house in 2007, and he pressed for clarity in a forthcoming autobiography. He told the Daily Mail that Rayner had “failed to answer straightforward questions concerning apparently conflicting pieces of information listed on public documents.” He added that he looked forward to reading in her memoir a full account of her living arrangements and property interests going back to 2007, while insisting that his own book merely reflected the publicly available facts.

Rayner resigned as deputy prime minister amid the stamp-duty dispute over the Hove property, a controversy that has loomed over her political standing as she pursues a memoir that could shape her public image and future leadership prospects. The affair has kept questions in the spotlight about how public figures disclose personal assets and how those disclosures align with policy positions on housing reform. The memoir project, paired with Ashcroft’s public comments, ensures that the housing chapter remains a talking point as Labour debates strategy and leadership dynamics on the national stage.