Angela Rayner’s allies have been forced to defend her purchase of an £800,000 seafront home against accusations that it was hypocritical.

Sources close to the Deputy Prime Minister insisted that she needed the three-bedroom flat in Hove as a base while working in London.

They said she was paying the correct amount of council tax on the flat in the East Sussex resort – her third home, alongside a constituency house and a grace-and-favour London property.