Which begs the question why didn’t she cough up when Ashcroft first brought it to light? If I’m a Labour strategist I’d have told her to do so. She says something along the lines of
“ I don’t believe I owed anything at the time, but it was before I was an MP and unlike Tories I wasn’t able to afford tax advice. With it being such a long time ago and having quite complex family arrangements I can’t be 100% sure I didn’t make a good faith error. In light of this I am prepared to pay X amount of CGT that I may have inadvertently avoided. Unlike the Tories who go out of their way to avoid paying tax, I go out of my way to pay them , even if its unclear whether I actually owed anything”.
The story dies, she comes out of it looking good, and a contrast between Labour & Tories attitude towards tax. If she can’t actually make a voluntary payment, she could donate it to a homeless charity, with the same public goodwill towards her.
Her continued insistence that she lived apart from the old man & kids is the biggest load of old pony since Dom went on a drive to test his eyesight. The reason she’s continuing with it maybe be down to it being a right to buy property. There’s probably a penalty to pay for renting it out so soon after buying, and it’s not a great look for someone to get a massive discount and then make income from it. There’s also income tax implications if it turns out her brother was renting it off her (as neighbours claim).
As I said, I’ve no problem with anyone avoiding CGT, but I thought others who seem to be supporting her would. I can’t get away with it because we rent ours out through an agency, but if my sister moved in Instead, I probably could.