Angela Rayner refusal to hand back severance pay savaged by Kelvin MacKenzie: ‘Can't think of a worse advert for Labour!’

Ms Rayner resigned as Housing Minister in September amid a scandal over underpaid stamp duty on a flat in Hove, which she was subsequently cleared of.

The Ashton-under-Lyne MP received a £16,876 ministerial severance payment, which she has confirmed will not be repaid as she returns to the Cabinet under Prime Minister Andy Burnham.

“You would have thought that, as part of the deal of coming back, Andy Burnham would have said she has got to pay the money back because there will be a political row about this. Obviously he never said that,” Mr MacKenzie began.

“I object to the fact she got it. And now I object to the fact she won't give it back.

“That will hang around her neck. Her political future is now over. She will sit there as Housing Secretary for three years, and then she will disappear.

“I can't think of a worse advert for the Labour Party and for politics generally,” he said.

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