Angela Rayner earnt £182,376 during her year off from Government, documents have revealed.
The Labour MP, who was recalled back to the Cabinet this week by new Prime Minister Andy Burnham, made hefty earnings through corporate speaking events during her ‘gap year’ from politics.
Public disclosures of her financial interests showed Ms Rayner earnt £104,000 from speaking events alone, as well as a £61,500 advance for her upcoming memoir.
The highest-paying engagements included a £20,000 speech Ms Rayner gave for Deutsche Bank, which was followed by a £1,000 hotel room and a £250 dinner.
She also earnt £20,000 from a two-hour speaking engagement with Propertymark, a trade body for the property sector, and £19,000 from an engagement with the Management Consultancies Association.
In total, Ms Rayner earnt £104,000 from 15.45 hours of speeches. She donated £15,000 of the earnings to charity.
The Housing Secretary previously called MPs having second jobs ‘shameful’.
She posted on X in March 2023 in response to an undercover documentary titled ‘MPs for Hire’, which revealed how MPs such as Matt Hancock allegedly made thousands through work outside of their MP job: ‘This is beyond shameful.
Official documents have revealed that Angela Rayner earnt more than £180,000 in her year off from Government
Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner pictured enjoying some family time last August
‘Being an MP isn’t a second job. It is the job. Labour will put an end to this racket.’
During her departure from Westminster, Ms Rayner also received donations of over £2,500 from businessmen Trevor Chinn and Richard Greer, as well as from barrister Martin Littler.
The money was earnt on top of the basic annual salary of an MP, which increased from £93,904 to £98,599 in April 2026.
The Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government has also not returned the £16,876 severance payment she received when she left her ministerial job last autumn – despite returning to the same position less than a year later.
Her departure on September 5, 2025, came after the Daily Mail revealed that she had not paid £40,000 in stamp duty on her second home in Hove, East Sussex.
The Tories have now demanded Ms Rayner hands back the £16,876 payoff she received for quitting as a Cabinet minister last year, after she returned to the job on Monday night when she was appointed to Andy Burnham’s top team.
She is back in her former role as Housing, Communities and Local Government Secretary after Steve Reed, a Keir Starmer loyalist, was sacked by Mr Burnham.
It comes little more than ten months after Ms Rayner was forced to resign following her tearful admission that she failed to pay £40,000 in stamp duty on a new flat.
Official accounts for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government confirmed Ms Rayner received a £16,876 exit payment for quitting the department on September 5 last year
James Cleverly, the shadow housing secretary, said: ‘Angela Rayner crusaded against tax avoidance, then avoided tax on her home, tried to cover it up and was forced to resign in disgrace.
‘She pocketed a £17,000 reward courtesy of the taxpayer, and now she’s got her old job back courtesy of her mate Andy Burnham, who wants to hike taxes on the family home for everyone else.
‘Rayner should hand back the cash. Her reappointment just confirms that there is one rule for Labour, and another for everyone else.’
Mike Wood, the shadow Cabinet Office minister, contrasted Ms Rayner’s acceptance of the severance payment to how Rushanara Ali – a fellow MHCLG minister – turned down a payoff.
Ms Ali quit as homelessness minister in August last year following a row over her rental of a property she owns in east London.
She ended her tenants’ fixed-term contract in order to sell up, but then re-listed the house for rent at a higher price within six months.
Mr Wood said: ‘Rushanara Ali, who was forced to quit as homelessness minister after evicting her tenants, turned down her severance payment.
‘Angela Rayner, on the other hand, kept hers – a convenient cash boost to help cover her unpaid tax bill.
‘Now that she’s back at MHCLG and in charge of stamp duty – a tax she dodged – she can have no excuse for not handing back the money to the taxpayer.’
Government ministers are entitled to a severance payment of 25 per cent of their annual salary when they leave office and are not reappointed within three weeks.
Ms Rayner’s payoff was a quarter of her annual ministerial salary of £67,505, which she was paid in addition to the £98,599 yearly salary she receives for being MP for Ashton-under-Lyne.
Following an update to the ministerial code made by Sir Keir in October last year, those former ministers who are reappointed to a ministerial office within three months are expected to forgo their salary for the period overlapping with the severance payment period.
A further change, made in October 2025 a month after Ms Rayner resigned, states that ministers are expected to waive a severance payment if they have committed a ‘serious breach’ of the ministerial code.
In a ruling on Ms Rayner’s stamp duty row, Sir Laurie Magnus, the PM’s independent adviser on ministers’ interests, said Ms Rayner breached the code because she failed to meet the ‘highest possible standards of proper conduct’.
When news of her severance payment later emerged, a spokesman for Ms Rayner said: ‘There is a world of difference between making an honest mistake and a severe breach of the ministerial code.
‘As the independent ethics adviser’s investigation concluded, Angela acted with integrity and an exemplary commitment to public service.’
The Daily Mail contacted Angela Rayner and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government for comment.
