Britain’s leftist Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner reportedly purchased her third home, worth nearly a million dollars amid the growing housing crisis she has been tasked to solve.
Ms Rayner, the Labour MP for Ashton-under-Lyne in Greater Manchester and the government’s housing minister, purchased a “luxury seaside” three bedroom apartment in the British beachtown of Britghton earlier this year.
The self-described socialist deputy prime minister is said to have paid £700,000 ($947,000) for the property, which represents her third home, alongside her ministerial London flat and her £650,000 ($879,000) home in her constituency, according to a report from The Sun newspaper.
The purchase may further undermine Rayner’s public image as a supposed champion of the working class, having been born on a council estate in Manchester.
Rayner previously faced criticism over accepting thousands in “freebie” gifts and donations from Labour billionaire donor Lord Ali, including £3,550 worth of free clothes.
Questions have also been raised over her property taxes, with oppostion politicians claiming that she “flipped” her primary residency after entering government to avoid paying the second home higher rate of council tax. She has so far not confirmed if this is the case.
Shadow Housing Secretary James Cleverly told the Mail on Sunday: “Angela Rayner is responsible for housing policy, yet she won’t even be straight about her own.
“Time and again she’s been asked to declare exactly what properties she owns and where she pays council tax, and time and again she has dodged those questions.
“Now we find out she’s got three homes. We’ve done everything possible to get answers, but she still refuses to come clean.
“That matters, because this is the same Deputy Prime Minister who has hiked taxes on family homes across the country.”
While the leftist politician now has three homes, millions of Britons are struggling to get on the property ladder. According to recent research from the Centre for Policy Studies, the UK currently has 6.5 million homes fewer than needed amid a lack of building and mass migration.
Rayner has vowed to build 1.5 million new homes in Britain, however, so far plans have been stalled and home building has fallen to a near decade low under the Labour government.
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