“I’ve got to pay my taxes and so has she, it’s as simple as that,” Andrew Davies, 57, said, a common view on the streets of Angela Rayner’s Ashton-under-Lyne constituency.

On Wednesday, the deputy prime minister acknowledged for the first time that she had mistakenly not paid the correct amount of stamp duty when she bought a flat in Hove earlier this year.

When she bought the £800,000 property in May, she paid the standard rate of stamp duty, estimated to be about £30,000, rather than the rate for second homes, which is higher, and would have amounted to as much as £70,000.

Rayner said that she had done so because she had in January put her stake in her Greater Manchester constituency home in Ashton-under-Lyne, in Tameside, into a trust for her children, with her name no longer on the deed.

The deputy prime minister, who is also the housing minister, said she had received legal advice that she would no longer count as the owner of the Tameside house, meaning the Hove flat would count as her sole property.

She said that after the media furore she had taken further legal advice and now understood that because of the trust arrangements on behalf of her children, she was still regarded as having an interest in the Tameside property and should therefore have paid higher taxes.

However, there was little sympathy in her constituency on Thursday morning, with shoppers in Ashton almost unanimously calling for her resignation.

“I pay a lot more taxes than a lot of people,” said Davies, a site leader for a chemical company. “I think she should resign as housing minister and maybe even consider deputy as well. She doesn’t represent Tameside one little bit as far as I can see.”

More than 250 miles away on the south coast, the words “tax evader” had appeared overnight, graffitied on the walls outside Rayner’s Hove flat. The word “bitch” had been sprayed on to the white walls in pink, with larger letters spelling out “tax evader” below.

Across the road, construction chipboard had also been vandalised, painted with the words “Tax evader Rayner” and “Rayner tax avoidance”.

People living nearby said they were “appalled” by the vandalism, with one describing it as a “disgraceful thing to do”. A spokesperson for Rayner said “it was unjustifiable and beyond the pale”.

Back in Ashton-under-Lyne, there was less vitriol but still an overriding sense of anger towards, and disappointment in, their elected representative.

Liz Carroll, 40, said in her opinion Rayner “should resign totally” from her ministerial roles and her parliamentary seat. “She’s a disgrace,” Carroll said. “She’s deputy prime minister, she shouldn’t be doing something like that. It’s £40,000 tax evasion and her trying to say she knew nothing about it, when she’s the housing minister? Come on.”

Carroll said at the last election she had voted Labour, “but now I wish I hadn’t. I was honest to God hoping that Keir Starmer would turn everything around.

“I think next time it comes to the actual vote, I’m Reform all the way,” she said.

Ashton-under-Lyne has high levels of deprivation, with more than 40% of children living in low-income families in 2023, almost double the national average.

Many of Rayner’s constituents found the £40,000 figure she was alleged to have saved in tax staggering, and second home ownership beyond their reach.

“I’ve only just about got one house, and that’s a bungalow,” Maureen Mills, 76, a retired office worker said, suggesting Rayner “has done something underhanded”.

“When you think about people struggling, it’s just awful,” she added.

She also criticised the prime minister, Keir Starmer, for standing behind his deputy. Mills said: “I think something more should be done than what they are doing.”

Adam Barratt, 49, was also critical of Keir Starmer. “He should do his job,” he said. “He’s the boss, he sets the rules, he should go ‘you’re sacked’, but he won’t will he?”

“I think it’s a disgrace,” said Stefen, a 31-year-old roofer. “Look at us struggling out here. Why should she get away with 40 grand, and we’re here struggling? It’s not right, is it obviously?” he said. “I think she should get sacked.”

Brian Kays, 64, worked on the railways for 40 years and describes himself as a Labour supporter. He said Rayner’s future should depend on the outcome of the investigation by the prime minister’s standards adviser.

However, “we’ve all got to be treated fairly,” he said. “Being an MP, you gotta be clean as clean. Even if she’s found not guilty, I think she should step down from the deputy anyway. It’s not going to go away, is it?”