Angela Rayner Refuses to Repay £16,876 Severance After Cabinet Return

3 articles · Updated · bbc.co.uk · Jul 23

Angela Rayner said she will not return the £16,876 ministerial severance payment she received after quitting government in September 2025, despite rejoining the cabinet this week as housing secretary.
The payout was triggered when Rayner resigned as deputy prime minister and housing secretary after underpaying tax on her £800,000 Hove flat; ministers reappointed within three weeks do not qualify, but she was out for nearly a year.
Conservatives have pressed her to hand back the money, citing her 2023 attack on Tory ministers over more than £450,000 in severance payments for some who later returned to the frontbench.
Rayner settled her tax affairs with HMRC in May by paying £40,000 in unpaid stamp duty and said she had been cleared of deliberately avoiding tax, while framing her return as a chance to finish work on council housing.
Andy Burnham has tied that comeback to a promised post-war-scale council house building push, though Rayner declined to give a target date or exact figure beyond pointing to £39 billion in social and affordable housing funding.