Rishi Sunak accused of ‘smearing’ Angela Rayner with PMQs tax advice jibe

Rishi Sunak has insisted Sir Keir Starmer should spend less time reading Liz Truss’s new book and instead focus on Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner’s tax advice. Mr Sunak’s jibe led Labour leader Sir Keir to accuse the “billionaire” Prime Minister of “smearing a working-class woman” as the pair clashed in the Commons. Ms Rayner has faced scrutiny about whether she paid the right amount of tax on the 2015 sale of her Stockport council house because of confusion over whether it was her principal residence. The Labour MP has said she will “do the right thing and step down” if she is found to have committed a crime in relation to her living situation a decade ago but remains confident she has followed the law at all times. Mr Sunak also took aim at his predecessor Ms Truss as he told MPs he had the “conviction” to say her economic policies were “wrong”, adding that Sir Keir failed to do similar during Jeremy Corbyn’s tenure as Labour leader. Sir Keir also used Prime Minister’s Questions to repeatedly press Mr Sunak about his ambition to scrap national insurance contributions altogether, which Labour argues would amount to £46 billion. Mr Sunak sidestepped calls to say whether such a policy would hit the NHS, the state pension or result in income tax rises. Subscribe to the Evening Standard: https://bit.ly/Subscribe-to-Evening-Standard for latest breaking news from the UK, US and around the world, plus podcasts and features. Evening Standard on socials: Check out our full video catalog: https://www.youtube.com/c/LondonEveningStandard/videos Videos, daily editorial and more: https://www.standard.co.uk/ Like us on Facebook: https://www.fb.com/eveningstandard Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/eveningstandard and Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/evening.standard