Yvette Cooper has got no better at defending Angela Rayner since she was last hauled out to do so. She said on Good Morning Britain in defence of Rayner’s refusal to publish her exonerating “expert” tax advice: “We don’t routinely publish personal finance information in this country.” That’s despite hypocrite Rayner insisting that a Tory candidate publish their full tax return and Starmer pledging last year to publish Rayner’s on an annual basis…

Cooper was very quick to say that she hadn’t seen Rayner’s “expert” advice as Richard Madeley asked: “Is Keir Starmer frightened to look at it because of what he might see?” Labour politicians are too smart to look at it because they know it will not adequately support the facts…

The defence was floated last week that a kitchen renovation in Rayner’s Vicarage Road house (which would have to be worth £23,000) offset the capital gains tax liability. The reason that hasn’t appeared again is that, if Rayner were to use the defence, it would contradict her version of reality – that she was living at Vicarage Road while her family lived at her husband’s house – because you don’t pay any capital gains tax on your primary residence so “improvements” are irrelevant. To say that the renovation offset tax is to admit primarily living elsewhere…

A neighbour over on Lowndes Lane is this week insisting that Rayner lived full time at her husband’s property. This isn’t going away…