Deputy prime minister Angela Rayner will be lucky to survive this latest tax-dodging property scandal, writes James Ford

If you are a government minister there are always a number of key warnings that your frontbench career is on the brink. The first stage of your fall from grace is when your fellow ministers end up having to defend your actions during a media round when they were supposed to be talking about the government’s latest policy wheeze. In stage two, the Prime Minister has to say he stands by you at PMQs. In the third stage, you find yourself stating emphatically that you are going nowhere. It is at this point that you should probably start drafting your resignation letter. The scandal over the deputy prime minister’s property tax payments has just reached stage two. Angela Rayner should be worried, very worried.

Until those fateful pictures of her quaffing rosé on Hove beach emerged, it would be reasonable to think that Angela Rayner was having a very good summer. According to Labourlist, she was the second highest rated member of the Cabinet amongst Labour voters and the second most popular choice amongst Labour members to succeed Keir Starmer as party leader. (In both surveys she was the highest rated woman). Her position seemed unassailable and the stealth with which she........

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