Starmer reprimands Reeves for ‘inadvertent failure’ over rental licence mishap

Sir Keir Starmer has sent a sharply worded email to Rachel Reeves criticising the Chancellor for misleading suggestions that she did not know she needed a licence to rent out her family home.

Reeves has had to backtrack from earlier suggestions that she and her husband had not been aware of the Southwark Council rental rules.

In a second exchange of letters late on Thursday evening, the Prime Minister wrote: “I accept that you were acting in good faith when you wrote to me last night.

“However, it would clearly have been better if you and your husband had conducted a full trawl through all email correspondence with the estate agency before writing to me yesterday.”

Southwark council implies lenciancy for Reeves

A spokesperson for Southwark council has implied that the local authority will not fine Rachel Reeves for her breach of housing rules.

The Chancellor has come under fire leasing her Southwark home without a license, after moving into 11 Downing Street in July last year.

While Southwark’s rules on housing allow tenants to claim up to 12 months of rent if they’re a tenant of an unlicensed property, the spokesperson said that enforcement action was reserved for those who failed to license their property when notified of an error.

“When we become aware of an unlicensed property, we issue a warning letter advising the landlord that they have 21 days to apply for a license – enforcement action such as fines are reserved for those who do not apply within that time or where a property is found to be in an unsafe condition,” the spokesperson said.

Reeves has said that she applied for a license immediately after being notified of the issue.

The Southwark spokesperson added that the council cannot comment on individual cases.

If Reeves were to face the full ire of the council and her tenants, she would be liable for up to 12 months of rent, or £38,400.

A spokesperson for the Chancellor told the Daily Mail that this “was an inadvertent mistake” and she has referred herself to the ethics advisor “in the spirit of transparency”.

A scandal-hit Labour cabinet

The rental revelations come just days after the Renters Rights Act received royal assent to become law, and less than two months after the former housing secretary Angela Rayner resigned after she admitted to not paying enough stamp duty on a flat in Hove. 

Rayner’s breach, however, was more serious, and she was found by the standards adviser to have broken the ministerial code. Significantly, she failed to seek further the expert tax advice that had been recommended to her.

Whilst Keir Starmer was quick off the mark to fan the flames of another embarrassing housing decision from a government minister, opposition MPs are seizing the moment.

Kemi Badenoch has called on the PM to launch a “full investigation” into Reeves’ handling of her house rental.