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Angela Rayner puts property in Trust - is that an inheritance tax dodging move?

Journalist: Katie Elliott, Daily Express

ended 05. September 2025

Following Angela Rayner's stamp duty blunder, it has come to light that the Deputy Prime Minister transferred her share of her Ashton-under-Lyne family home into a trust for her children earlier this year. 

Could this have been an inheritance tax move? Would this move benefit her? Or is this a valid move given her son's circumstances? Looking for experts to provide commentary on this issue. 

In her stamp duty apology statement, her explanation on the Trust reads: "In 2023 my ex-husband and I divorced. As parents who have been through divorce will understand, the top priority for both of us during that process was the wellbeing of our children and helping them navigate this change.

"To provide maximum stability during this transition, we agreed to a nesting arrangement where the children remain in the family home full-time while we alternate living there. We also wanted to ensure that our child, who has special educational needs, was provided for as part of the divorce settlement.

"A court-instructed trust was established in 2020 following a deeply personal and distressing incident involving my son as a premature baby. He was left with life-long disabilities, and the trust was established to manage the award on his behalf - a standard practice in circumstances like ours.

"To ensure he continued to have stability in the family home, which had been adapted for his needs, we agreed that our interest in the family home would be transferred to this court-instructed trust of which he is the sole beneficiary.

“Some of the interest in our family home was transferred to the trust in 2023. In January 2025, I sold the remaining interest in the property to my son's trust. This will give him the security of knowing the home is his, allowing him to continue to live in the home he feels safe in and grew up in. We transferred the property because it was in the best interests of our child. I acted as any parent would.”

She added: “After I sold my stake to the trust, I bought a property in Hove in May 2025. Like many people, I used the lump sum from selling my stake in my Ashton home, which was the only property I owned and where my savings were, for the deposit on my new one. I obtained a mortgage to finance the rest.”

3 responses from the Newspage community

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Editor
Eamonn Prendergast
Chartered Financial Adviser at Palantir Financial Planning Ltd
If you live in a property and still have a beneficial interest after transferring it to a trust, the tax consequences can be far more complex than people realise. What may start as a well-intentioned step to safeguard family stability can create unintended tax and legal consequences, especially with something as costly as stamp duty. For politicians, the stakes are even higher. One financial misstep quickly becomes a reputational one, and once trust is lost it’s hard to regain. The devil really is in the detail, and this case underlines that getting the right advice isn’t optional, it’s essential.
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Editor
Scott Gallacher
Director at Rowley Turton
Both can be true – this move could have been taken legitimately to provide security for her son while also starting the clock on a potential inheritance tax saving. And IHT planning is also a perfectly legimate aim for many people. Without full details of the case, it’s difficult to be certain, but the partial transfer in 2023 is somewhat unusual given Angela Rayner and her ex-husband’s age. Most people would be reluctant to give up ownership of their home, particularly to a minor child, as they usually need that asset themselves in later life. If her son had already received a significant settlement, you might normally expect that to cover his housing needs rather than require an additional transfer of the parents’ property. The subsequent sale in 2025 naturally raises further questions, and in such circumstances, it would generally be expected that an independent valuation is obtained to ensure fairness and avoid any potential conflict of interest.
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Samuel Mather-Holgate
Managing Director & IFA at Mather and Murray Financial
Raynor has a child with a disability so it would be advisable to protect assets for their care in the future, that could come in the form of a trust. Inheritance tax savings certainly wouldn’t be a main driver here, especially if she was still staying in the property as HMRC would see this as a gift with reservation and there would be no IHT savings. Raynor was definitely careless with her planning and, more importantly, her disclosures. But she was not devious.