Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner has been accused of rank hypocrisy after allegedly avoiding £40,000 in stamp duty after the purchase of her new seaside property in Hove.

The Telegraph claims that Ms Rayner quietly removed her name from the deeds of her Greater Manchester home based in her constituency Ashton-under-Lyne just weeks before snapping up a flat on the south coast.

The Labour deputy leader, who has built her career railing about housing inequality and pledging 1.5 million new homes over five years, was spotted last week vaping on an inflatable canoe off Brighton Beach, a short distance from her new property.

While Ms Rayner frequently champions first-time buyers “desperate to get on the housing ladder,” she is understood to now own three separate homes. Critics say this sits uneasily with her public stance on housing, branding her a “hypocrite.”

The 45-year-old’s new three-bedroom flat near Brighton joins her apartment in Westminster and the house she bought in Ashton-under-Lyne for £375,000 in 2016, now worth around £650,000.

Her estranged husband, from whom she is divorcing, continues to live in the Ashton property with their children.