Rachel Reeves broke the law and could be forced to hand back tens of thousands of pounds to tenants after renting out her family home without a licence, with the Tories call for her to quit and be prosecuted. The Mail has more.
The Chancellor is struggling to contain a furious backlash over the blunder uncovered by the Daily Mail, despite Keir Starmer desperately trying to prop her up.
Ms Reeves failed to obtain a landlord licence when she placed the property in Dulwich, south London, on the rental market last year as she moved into 11 Downing Street.
Southwark Council has vowed to crack down on unlicensed letting, with its website advising tenants that they can get money back.
It appears that could be up to £38,000 in the case of Ms Reeves – who has enthusiastically backed similar landlord licences in her own Leeds constituency.
But despite previous cases going to court, Sir Keir insisted the matter is closed within hours of the news breaking.
He said further investigation is “not necessary” after receiving an apology from Ms Reeves and consulting his independent ethics adviser, Sir Laurie Magnus.
Downing Street declined to say whether she had broken the ministerial code during a bad-tempered briefing with political journalists today, but denied there had been a “stitch-up” to avoid panicking the markets.
Ms Reeves was ruthlessly mocked for the blunder in an AI-generated video branding her a “rent queen” this morning – reminiscent of memes about Angela Rayner’s failure to pay stamp duty.
The Chancellor – who is less than a month from delivering a Budget that could seal the fate of the Labour Government – suggested that the letting agent had not advised her of the need for a licence.
In a round of broadcast interviews, Shadow Chancellor Mel Stride warned that Ms Reeves’s position is “untenable”.
Ms Reeves put her four-bedroom detached house on the market for £3,200 a month last year, and her register of interests states she has received rental income since September 2024.
Southwark Council, the local authority, requires that private landlords in certain areas – including the one where her house is located – obtain a “selective” licence to rent out their property.
But last night she admitted that she was unaware of the licensing requirement and, following inquiries by the Daily Mail, applied for the licence. …
Shadow Foreign Secretary Priti Patel said: “Labour run Southwark Council boasts of ‘cracking down on’ and having a ‘zero tolerance approach to rogue landlords’ and have prosecuted landlords for renting unlicensed properties.
“Rachel Reeves has made thousands from renting without following the licensing laws. Southwark Council must now take action on Rachel Reeves and prosecute her.”
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said the revelations were “very serious”.
“If the Chancellor, who has spent months floating punishing tax hikes on family homes, has at the same time seemingly been profiting from illegally renting out her house, that would make her position extremely tenuous,” she said,
“The Prime Minister must launch a full investigation. He once said ‘lawmakers can’t be lawbreakers’.
“If, as it appears, the Chancellor has broken the law, then he will have to show he has the backbone to act.”
Worth reading in full.
It’s just an inadvertent mistake of course. Labour’s problem is that in opposition it frequently called for Tory ministers to resign over similar unintentional minor infractions of the law. So the party is now being hoist by its own petty petard.
Featured image: Reddit
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