GB News stars 'lock horns' in furious Angela Rayner row as Keir Starmer dealt blow

GB News viewers witnessed fireworks as Andrew Pierce and Miriam Cates clashed live on air over Angela Rayner's stamp duty scandal, with the row highlighting a fresh headache for Labour leader Keir Starmer. The Deputy Prime Minister is under mounting pressure to resign after admitting she underpaid stamp duty on her seaside home in Hove, sparking an ethics investigation.

Cates came to Rayner's defence, warning that the controversy "isn't as simple" as it first appeared. But Pierce was scathing, accusing her of "ignorance of the law," which he said was unacceptable for a Housing Minister. "The Deputy Prime Minister, who is also Housing Secretary, admitted she hadn't paid the right stamp duty on the luxury home she bought in Hove," Pierce said. "We know, because there were leaks against her, that she designated it as her primary residence, which meant she did not have to pay the extra £40,000 in stamp duty."

Cates pushed back: "If you say it like that, it makes it sound like she deliberately tried to make the Hove property her primary residence in order to avoid tax, but I don't think it's that simple.

The issue surrounds whether she owns the home in Ashton-under-Lyne in her constituency. Any ordinary person would think she doesn't. She has no mortgage on it and she's not on the deeds."

She argued that the legal complexity was significant, saying: "If the beneficiary of the trust who owns it-in her case her son, who is under 18-exists, then you as an adult parent are counted as having an interest in it.

"Therefore, it is treated as your home, and it becomes a second property under stamp duty tax law. There are accountants and lawyers coming out today saying they didn't even understand that loophole."

The debate grew heated when Pierce raised Rayner's grace-and-favour property in London, insisting: "It always looked odd to say a house in Sussex, 260 miles from your constituency, is your principal residence."

He added: "She knew by doing that she would save herself tens of thousands of pounds in stamp duty." "I don't think she knew that at all," Cates countered.

The row continued as Pierce argued Rayner should have published the legal advice she received, citing Jacob Rees-Mogg's suggestion she could have addressed Parliament "under the cloak of parliamentary privilege."

Cates shot back: "Would you do that if you had a court order in place to protect your own child?"

Rayner has since apologised, admitted she considered resigning, and confirmed she has contacted HMRC to pay what she owes. "I trusted my tax adviser, as we all do, and the tax adviser made a mistake," she said.

But Pierce's blunt verdict summed up the sceptics: "I'm not sure ignorance of the law is a good defence."