MAIL ON SUNDAY COMMENT: Rayner still has much to answer

When The Mail on Sunday first broke the story of Angela Rayner's property and tax problems in February, a lot of people in politics and the media preferred to pretend that it did not matter.

But day by day and inch by inch, other newspapers and major broadcasters have come to recognise that there is something important going on here, and the Labour Party itself has stopped trying to act as if there is nothing to see in their Deputy Leader's past.

Perhaps the crucial change has come in the attitude of Greater Manchester Police, who originally showed no interest but have now launched an investigation into allegations that Ms Rayner may have broken electoral law.

As yet, no official body is concerning itself with the suggestions that she may have been liable to pay capital gains tax on the sale of her house.

Even so, a large number of people and organisations, who began by dismissing or snootily ignoring the issue, have now come round to recognising that there is something here which needs investigating.

Perhaps the most reluctant has been the Labour Party leader, Sir Keir Starmer, whose reputation as the great prosecutor has been severely dented by his unwillingness to probe his close colleague's affairs.

Ms Rayner herself has done the decent thing by saying clearly, following the police involvement, that she will quit if found guilty of wrongdoing.

It is no surprise that she should have been so straightforward at this point, even if her candour probably alarmed her spin doctors.

We continue to believe that Angela Rayner is a fundamentally decent person who has got herself into a fix and is not getting much help from her own side in getting out of it. There are incessant innuendoes, doubtless originating in the dark, evasive depths of the spin machine first devised in the Blair days. They whisper that our investigation is motivated by snobbery or spite.

Far from it.

Ms Rayner is that rare and valuable thing: a genuine representative of the northern working class in the top echelons of the supposed People's Party, which these days seeks mainly to represent the 'people' of well-off North-West London. Ms Rayner is a valuable contributor to our national politics, precisely because she comes from a hard and poor background.

She fights in the laudable tradition of Old Labour politics and, thanks to her, millions on the tougher edges of our society feel their voice is heard in Parliament.

Our story is not a 'smear', but well-researched allegations that have been carefully presented, which have not dispersed in the weeks since they were first made because Ms Rayner has not fully answered them.

Where, for instance, is this advice that she says she had, telling her that all was well?

There is much still to answer – especially the powerful evidence that she was living where she says she was not, and wasn't living where she says she was.

Now it is clear beyond doubt that this will not go away, can everyone involved please come clean?