Labour deputy leader and shadow housing secretary Angela Rayner says she is not ashamed to have brought her council house at a discounted rate.

The revelation is made in a new biography of Rayner, written by Conservative Lord Ashcroft and reported in the Daily Mail.

Rayner bought the property in 2007 under the Right To Buy scheme: she has pledged to reassess the future of the scheme if her party wins power at the next election.

The Mail claims she made a £48,500 profit when she sold her ex-council house in Stockport in 2015 despite having criticised recent Tory administrations for giving some tenants “loads and loads of discount”.

Over the weekend Rayner rejected any criticism of her decision by tweeting: “It’s clear that Lord Ashcroft and his friends not only take an unhealthy interest in my family – but want to kick down at people like me who graft hard in tough circumstances to get on in life. I won’t let them.

“We’ve said we’ll review the unfair additional market discounts of up to 60% the Tories introduced in 2012, long after I was able to exercise the right to buy (25%) under the old system. That’s not hypocrisy, it’s the right thing to do.

“But the problem with the right to buy was never ordinary people’s dreams of owning their own home – it was that council housing stock was sold off and then not replaced. It’s helped fuel the housing crisis.

“Labour believes those who live in a council house should have the opportunity to own their own home. Working people should be able to buy the social home they rented for a reasonable discount.

“Being able to buy my council house back in 2007 was a proud moment for me. I worked hard, saved and bought it by the book. I’m not ashamed – but I am angry that the Tories have since put the dream of a secure home out of reach for so many others.”

Right To Buy was introduced by Margaret Thatcher through the Housing Act 1980 and allows council tenants to buy homes at large discounts.

Councils which lose RTB properties from their housing stock can keep only a third of the receipts from each sale to build a replacement home, and are prevented from borrowing to make up the shortfall.

Right To Buy has been scrapped in Wales and Scotland but Labour says it will keep it in England, should it win this year’s election.