Angela Rayner is facing questions after her taxpayer-funded bodyguards were seen helping her partner move belongings into her second home.
The former deputy prime minister, who quit Sir Keir Starmer’s cabinet after under-paying stamp duty on the purchase of a seaside flat, was accused of wasting public money.
Pictures published in the Mail on Sunday showed two close-protection officers helping former Labour MP Sam Tarry, Ms Rayner’s boyfriend, move bags and boxes in a BMW X5 between their two homes.
The security experts and the car are paid for by taxpayers at a cost of thousands of pounds a day.
Ms Rayner’s spokesperson defended the move, saying the MP has a ‘heightened and active’ security risk, and her Hove home had been targeted recently with misogynistic graffiti.
But critics rounded on the fact Ms Rayner was not seen as the security detail ferried Mr Tarry and a series of boxes from her property in Hove to his flat in Brighton – a three-mile journey.
Bodyguards were later seen filling the car with bags from Mr Tarry’s flat before taking them back to Ms Rayner’s seaside home.
Tory chairman Kevin Hollinrake told The Independent “Labour has serious questions to answer”.
He said: “It’s right that MPs and their families are protected from intimidation and violence.
“But Labour must now explain why Sam Tarry has been making use of Angela Rayner’s taxpayer funded security and transport.
“The public deserves to know whether she has been abusing these privileges and taking them for a ride yet again.”
Critics questioned why Ms Rayner’s bodyguards were apparently being used to help with her private living arrangements after her resignation from the cabinet.
Ms Rayner last month quit Sir Keir’s government after it emerged that she underpaid stamp duty on a seaside flat.
She saved £40,000 on the property in Hove, East Sussex, by removing her name from the deeds of a family home in her Ashton-under-Lyne constituency.
Sir Keir’s ethics adviser Sir Laurie Magnus found that she had breached the ministerial code.
He said the ex-deputy prime minister and housing secretary had “acted with integrity”, but failed to “heed the caution” contained within legal advice she received when buying the £800,000 property in Hove.
In her resignation letter, the former deputy PM wrote: “I have long believed that people who serve the British public in government must always observe the highest standards.
“While the Independent Adviser has concluded that I acted in good faith and with honesty and integrity throughout, I accept that I did not meet the highest standards in relation to my recent property purchase.”
After the pictures were published, Tory MP Ben Obese-Jecty told the Mail on Sunday: “Highly trained close-protection officers shouldn’t be moonlighting as removal men.
“The public will be astonished at this outrageous waste of taxpayers’ money and appalled at such shameless behaviour.
“Angela Rayner’s arrogance has already cost her her ministerial career. Her sense of entitlement shows calls by senior Labour figures last week to bring her back are very poorly judged.”
And Reform UK deputy leader Richard Tice said her “removals should not be funded by the taxpayer”.
The Mail on Sunday reported that a close protection officer was seen carrying empty boxes out of Ms Rayner’s home into the BMW before driving with Mr Tarry to his home 45 minutes later.
Ms Rayner’s spokesman said: “Angela has a heightened and active security risk, and her property in Hove has been attacked with misogynistic and extremist graffiti.
“Mindful of the ongoing risks facing Angela, the security team facilitated her partner moving a small number of her possessions into a vehicle to minimise risk to her security.
“The close-protection team may undertake tasks based on the assessment of the situation and to ensure the safety and wellbeing of the person they are protecting.”
A House of Commons spokesman declined to comment on MPs’ security arrangements.
