Residents have told of their disbelief after at least a dozen police officers were ordered to investigate Angela Rayner over the sale of her former council house.
Neighbours in her old street labelled the investigation “a witch hunt”, a “waste of money” and a “smear campaign”. One man said: “Twelve? It’s nonsense." He added: “I do understand there is an issue but crikey. It looks like punching down doesn’t it.”
A woman said: “You would think resources could be diverted elsewhere. There is enough crime out there that could perhaps be looked at.”
And a long time resident of Vicarage Road in Stockport, who gave his name as Tony, said: “I think it is excessive. Twelve police officers to investigate seems like a bit of a witch hunt. If she has done wrong, then she has done wrong, but there are worse shenanigans going on, especially in the Tory party.”
Another man said: “It is because there is a general election coming up. It is like a smear campaign." And a woman neighbour said: “I think it is a waste of taxpayers' money.”
Greater Manchester Police announced last week it was looking into whether any offences were committed by Labour's Deputy Leader - after Tory complaints. Ms Rayner has vowed to quit if police conclude she has committed a criminal offence - but she has insisted she followed the rules "at all times".
At PMQs Keir Starmer and Rishi Sunak clashed over the row as the PM made a jibe saying the Labour leader should spend more time examining her tax advice. But defending his Deputy, Mr Starmer accused the billionaire PM of "smearing a working-class woman" while his own family had "used schemes to avoid millions of pounds in tax".
The Manchester force had previously said Ms Rayner would not face an investigation into accusations she broke electoral law by giving false information about her main residence. But launching its investigation last week, the force said: "We're investigating whether any offences have been committed." This followed a "reassessment of the information provided to us" by the Tory deputy chairman James Daly.
Ms Rayner has faced accusations of falsely claiming that she was living at an ex-council house she owned on Vicarage Road, when she was living at her former husband Mark Rayner's house a mile down the road. Critics said she may have broken electoral law as she should not have been registered on the electoral roll if she did not live there.
Tory MPs have also questioned whether she paid the right amount of tax on the sale of the property in 2015, because of confusion over whether it was her principal residence. Yesterday it was reported GMP's investigation is not limited to potential electoral law offences and may involve tax matters, but the force declined to comment.
Speaking to BBC Radio Manchester on Tuesday, GMP Chief Constable Stephen Watson said there were a "number of assertions knocking about". He said the investigation was "a neutral act – it does not imply that the information gives us any hard and fast evidence upon which to base anything at this stage. It is simply we have an allegation. These allegations are of course all over the news. We are going to get to the bottom of what has happened.”
TV star Carol Vorderman leapt to Ms Rayner's defence on Twitter, saying: "GMP should be investigating real crime surely, not the trumped up, absurdly hypocritical accusations of a desperate government in its dying days."