Free speech lives here Enjoy journalism that’s proud to share your values Enjoy four months’ free access to The Telegraph. Cancel at any time. |  | Hayley Dixon Special Correspondent | The fightback by Angela Rayner’s lawyers could be the final straw for the Deputy Prime Minister.
On Wednesday, Ms Rayner insisted that the scandal surrounding the purchase of her £800,000 seaside holiday home in Hove was not her fault, and that it was, in fact, a result of the legal guidance that she had received.
Sources said she had been given three bits of advice, including from the conveyancers who advised her on the purchase, but they refused to publish the full details.
In order to get to the truth of the matter, Telegraph reporters, aided by legal documents, tracked down the lawyers involved to a tiny office attached to the side of a Co-op on a back street in Herne Bay, Kent.
They told us a very different story. Speaking exclusively to The Telegraph, Joanna Verrico, the managing director of Verrico & Associates, said the firm “did not and never has given tax or trust advice” and the “stamp duty for the Hove flat was calculated using HMRC’s own online calculator, based on the figures and the information provided by Ms Rayner”. The 82-year-old licensed conveyancer said Verrico & Associates are “being made scapegoats for all this, and I have got the arrows stuck in my back to show it”.
Ms Rayner has not responded to their claims, or to questions about why she chose a six-person family firm that does not employ any solicitors to advise her on tax matters involving what she has described as a “complex” trust set up for her son.
In Sir Keir Starmer’s eyes, her fate now lies in the hands of Sir Laurie Magnus, his official adviser on ethics, who is investigating.
During an interview with the BBC, Sir Keir was asked five times whether he would sack Ms Rayner if Sir Laurie concluded that she had breached the ministerial code. He eventually said he was willing to “act” once given the report.
But as a result of The Telegraph’s latest revelations, questions are growing about her account of events, as well as her original “error” in the amount of tax she paid.
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Plus, see more of our coverage below:
Starmer ‘prepared to sack Rayner’ ➤
Why is the Deputy PM’s house so much more expensive than her neighbours’? ➤
Rayner’s council considers striking her off electoral roll ➤ | | David Frost Withdrawal from the ECHR is just the first step in Parliament taking back control Continue reading ➤ Nigel Farage Britain and America must unite to defend freedom of speech Continue reading ➤ Lisa Armstrong A hard act to follow, it’s no wonder Armani never appointed a successor Continue reading ➤ | Get the full experience Unlock our award-winning website, app and newsletters Enjoy four months’ free access to The Telegraph. Cancel at any time. | | Nadine Dorries, the former culture secretary, defected to Reform UK yesterday on the eve of the party’s conference. Ms Dorries is the highest profile former Conservative to join Nigel Farage’s party and declared that “the Tory party is dead” as she announced the move. The latest in a number of recent defections, attention will be squarely focused on the party’s conference as it gets under way today. Continue reading ➤ | |  | | Jonathan Barnett was one of sport’s most influential powerbrokers, a super-agent to the Premier League’s biggest stars. On July 2, however, a 60-page civil claim was lodged against him, alleging “torture” and rape “in excess of 39 times”. With the claimant alleging “institutional abuse at the highest level”, the sport and Hollywood talent powerhouse Creative Artists Agency (CAA), which is also listed as a defendant, is facing its most damaging allegations since being sued over the Harvey Weinstein scandal. Barnett – and CAA – have denied all allegations against them. Read Telegraph Sport’s special report on an incendiary case. Continue reading ➤ | | | | | 1. Upper carriage was travelling towards top of hill when cable broke
2. Carriage lost control and careered back down the slope
3. Crash site: Carriage derailed at bend in the road, killing 16 people and injuring several more
4. Funicular carriage at bottom of hill dropped around two metres, causing several non-serious injuries | The journey up the hill in Lisbon’s 140-year-old Glória Funicular was a three-minute trip that André Marques, the vehicle’s brakeman, would have made countless times. On Wednesday, however, as the carriage trundled up towards the São Pedro de Alcântara viewpoint, its momentum abruptly shifted. The cable snapped, and the carriage, with at least 38 passengers on board, hurtled back down the steep hill “at full speed”. It derailed on a bend and smashed into a hotel, where it collapsed like a cardboard box, killing 16 people. With the cause of the cable snapping now the subject of feverish speculation, The Telegraph reconstructs Wednesday’s disaster. Continue reading ➤ | | | | A report published this week by the University of Leicester’s Centre for Hate Studies claims racist abuse is “tolerated or even normalised” in rural areas. That is not the experience of Wilfred Emmanuel-Jones, who moved from inner-city Birmingham to deepest Devon 27 years ago and sells a range of products under the brand The Black Farmer. Yes, the countryside is predominately white, he says – but it is not racist. “My story completely contradicts the popular opinion that someone who looks like me wouldn’t be welcome in the English countryside,” he adds. “In my experience, there is more racism in urban environments.” Continue reading ➤ | | | Alcoholism, serious accidents, sniffy reviews... they’ve endured them all, but Sheffield’s sixty-something metal legends Def Leppard are still selling out arenas the world over. And they even like each other enough to share a dressing room, as Craig McLean discovered when he met them in Miami. Continue reading ➤ | | | As many of us in our thirties, forties and beyond can testify, our ability to bounce back from a night of drinking decreases with age – with stomach jitters, a pounding headache and feelings of anxiety often lingering for at least 48 hours. But why does the morning after become a multi-day event, and is there anything we can do to avoid it? David Cox speaks to the professor behind researching hangovers to find out. Continue reading ➤ Below are two more articles I hope you find helpful: | | TV Wednesday: Season 2, part 2
Netflix ★★★★☆ The second season of Netflix’s supernatural dramedy, starring Jenna Ortega in the gloomy title role, concludes with two episodes directed by series producer Tim Burton, a more prominent part for the wonderful Joanna Lumley, and an all-too-brief appearance by a certain Lady Gaga. Through plenty of twists, and one major reveal, the series continues to weave its deadpan sorcery before once again ending on a cliffhanger, writes Ed Power. Film The Conjuring: Last Rites ★★★★☆ The Conjuring has come a long way since James Wan launched the franchise in 2013 with a jump-scare-packed paranormal chiller, vaguely based on a true story. If you count the spin-offs (The Nun, Annabelle, and sequels to both), The Conjuring: Last Rites marks the 10th and final film. Sticking to the now familiar template, Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga’s psychic duo return to bring the series to rest with enough chillingly imaginative touches to make it a winner, writes Tim Robey.
(In cinemas now) Books How to Save the Internet, by Nick Clegg ★☆☆☆☆ Nick Clegg’s latest book, a baffling and unsatisfying defence of his former Silicon Valley masters, could more accurately be titled You Know, Mark Zuckerberg Really Isn’t So Bad Once You Get To Know Him. The central argument is that the people who paid the former deputy prime minister £2.7 million a year, plus £9.4 million in stock, to be (most recently) president of global affairs at Meta, are actually wonderful, a “collection of idealists who wanted to change the world”. Sam Kriss is not convinced. | Score settling Every weekday, Orlando Bird, our loyal Reader Correspondent, shares an off-piste topic that has brought out the best of your opinions and stories. Orlando writes...
John Williams, the celebrated film composer, has been on the record to say that he doesn’t, in fact, like film music very much. His pulse, it would seem, doesn’t quicken at the sound of those low strings in Jaws; the majesty of the Jurassic Park theme tune sends no shiver down his spine.
Nor does he believe that most cinematic scores have a place in the concert hall. Mike Hart, a Telegraph reader, agreed. “I hope the controller of BBC Radio 3 will take this on board,” he said.
I confess to doing my fair share of grumbling when I hear precious airtime given over to, say, the Lord of the Rings soundtrack (yes, I might even harrumph that I “didn’t realise I was listening to Classic FM”, while everyone around me sighs).
But I’ve felt chastened by some of your responses. “Those who doubt the merits of film music should consider the work of Ralph Vaughan Williams,” wrote Paul Bendit. “He composed several film scores and turned some into concert scores. The largest such work was his Seventh Symphony (Sinfonia Antartica), using material he wrote for 1948’s Scott of the Antarctic.”
For Jeremy Nicholas, “a better example is Erich Wolfgang Korngold, who self-plagiarised the themes from four of his earlier film scores for his glorious violin concerto”.
David Glover, meanwhile, observed that “the forerunners of film – opera and ballet – were the basis of so much great music. Think of overtures by Beethoven, Rossini or Tchaikovsky. It is also worth noting that Finlandia, by Sibelius, was written to accompany a series of ‘living tableaux’, surely the closest thing to film in 1899”. So there we are: I have been persuaded to re-examine my prejudices. Any recommendations? As ever, you can contact me here, or join the debate on our Your Say page, exclusively on The Telegraph app. | Make your voice heard Join our journalists in conversation on today’s biggest topics Enjoy four months’ free access to The Telegraph. Cancel at any time. | Plan your day with the telegraph | Set your alarm to catch up with journalists on the Your Say page and listen to their analysis on our latest podcasts.
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The solution to yesterday’s clue was GOALMOUTH. Come back tomorrow for the answer to today’s puzzle. | | Thank you for reading. Have a fulfilling day and I hope to see you tomorrow.
Chris Evans, Editor
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