The controversy over Angela Rayner’s tangled financial affairs deepened today as it emerged that she employed the services of a company which specialised in ‘wealth protection’.

The embattled Deputy Prime Minister – already accused of ‘flipping’ the designation of her main home to limit her liabilities for stamp duty and council tax – split the ownership of her £650,000 constituency home with a trust administered by blue-chip law firm Shoosmiths.

At the time of the deal, in 2023, the company boasted that it had a dedicated ‘wealth protection team’ to help its private clients.

The legal manoeuvre would be consistent with Ms Rayner placing some of the house’s equity in trust for her three children, one of whom has special needs – although the Deputy PM’s office repeatedly declined to answer The Mail on Sunday’s questions about its purpose. 

Today, the Tories demanded to know whether the arrangement with the Shoosmiths Trust Corporation offered any inheritance tax advantages for Ms Rayner’s family – a political point heightened by the fact Chancellor Rachel Reeves is reportedly considering raising inheritance tax in her autumn Budget as part of a wider range of ‘wealth taxes’.

Conservatives have already called for an inquiry into claims Ms Rayner avoided £40,000 in stamp duty by telling the taxman that her new £800,000 property in Hove was her main home, having told the Cabinet Office that her primary residence was the constituency home in Ashton-under-Lyne. 

She is understood to have sold her stake in the Ashton house to fund the Hove flat.

Ms Rayner, who is also the Housing Secretary, has faced a barrage of questions about her living arrangements since The Mail on Sunday revealed last weekend that she had bought the seaside apartment, despite Labour turning the screws on second-home owners for pricing out locals.

After stonewalling months of questions about where she had designated her ‘primary residence’ for council tax purposes, sources close to the Cabinet minister were forced to state that it was Ashton. 

This ensures that she avoids paying council tax on her third home, her grace-and-favour flat in Admiralty House, central London.

Ms Rayner paid about £30,000 in stamp duty on the Hove apartment, a bill which would have risen to £70,000 had the flat been considered a second home. 

The discrepancy is due to a punitive tax regime designed to discourage holiday home purchases which Ms Reeves extended last year. 

Ms Rayner’s own department has also empowered councils to levy a 100 per cent surcharge on council tax for second properties.

Ms Rayner is facing accusations of hypocrisy because in the past she has called for Tory governments to ‘build up resources to tackle tax avoidance’ because it was ‘damaging our country’.

Tory Party chairman Kevin Hollinrake said Ms Rayner should ‘come clean on the litany of accusations of tax avoidance – be it stamp duty, council tax or inheritance tax’.

He asked: ‘What implications does putting her Ashton-under-Lyne house into a trust have for inheritance tax?

‘Tax avoidance may be entirely lawful – and many families will rightly want to minimise their inheritance tax to hand over as much as possible to their children and grandchildren, especially in the face of Labour’s cruel family farms and family business taxes.

‘But it’s the height of hypocrisy for a Labour politician who wants to hike property taxes for everyone else, and lectured others on tax avoidance, to appear to be doing the very same.

‘Ms Rayner needs to instruct the Land Registry to place all the documents in the public domain, including publishing the declaration of trust made in 2023 and all subsequent changes. 

The independent adviser on ministerial standards should also investigate this matter as part of his sleaze inquiry.’

Mr Hollinrake has already written to the adviser, Sir Laurie Magnus, calling for him to investigate Ms Rayner’s tax affairs.

The Shoosmiths Trust, administered by solicitors at the firm, was first named as a part-owner of the Ashton house in May 2023. 

It is not known which of the company’s wide range of legal services were used by Ms Rayner.

Since her deal was struck, members of Shoosmiths’ wealth protection and trusts teams have been hived off to a separate firm.

It has been reported that Ms Reeves is examining ways to raise more money from inheritance tax, including a cap on how much someone can donate as part of their tax planning. 

This would mean that any large sums handed over decades before death – such as a contribution towards a child’s property deposit – would count as part of an estate for tax purposes.

Pensions minister Torsten Bell, who is helping draft the Budget, has previously called for radical reforms to stamp duty.

Sir Laurie is able to instigate investigations where he believes there is evidence of a potential breach of the rules, but it would be for Sir Keir Starmer to decide what to do about any findings.

Labour MP Graham Stringer said that the row over Ms Rayner’s housing arrangements was a bad look for the party. He said: ‘The optics of it, just before a Budget, doesn’t look good. [Ms Rayner] needs to sort that out and be clear that what she’s doing is genuinely in the public interest.’

A spokesman for the Deputy Prime Minister said that she had paid her taxes in full and done nothing wrong.

Shoosmiths did not respond to a request for comment.