Rushanara Ali: Labour promised to fix housing – but are they leading by example?
A shocking revelation was unearthed by the i Paper on Thursday that homelessness minister Rushanara Ali had evicted her tenants before hiking up the rent on her east London property by £700.
The Conservatives promptly called on the Bethnal Green and Stepney MP to resign, with their party chair (who is also a landlord) saying: “You can’t say those things, then do the opposite in practice as a landlord. She’s got to resign.”
It’s not hard to spot the hypocrisy. A minister who has called for more protection of tenants now accused of exploiting her own will read very badly.
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But on Thursday, two cabinet ministers came to her defence. Rachel Reeves and Yvette Cooper stated that, while they did not know all the facts, they understood she had complied with the law. It seems she will also not be referring herself to the ministerial standards adviser for an investigation.
Those laws, though – Labour was hoping to change. The Renters’ Reform Bill, which is set to become law next year, is designed to stop the exploitation of the private rental market, with the new regulations aiming to stop landlords from re-letting their property at an increased rental price within six months of evicting tenants to sell it.
And it’s particularly awkward for Labour, as this is not their first indiscretion within their ranks for bad landlord practice.
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Home Secretary Yvette Cooper defends minister Rushanara Ali
A BBC investigation found that the MP Jas Athwal had rented properties infested with ants and riddled with black mould. He said he was “shocked” by the findings of the investigation and had been “unaware” of the state of the properties, and that some licences were out of date, and he would repair the properties.
Ms Ali herself had previously criticised private landlords, but after the general election, Labour became the biggest party of landlords.
According to parliament’s register of interests, there are 85 MPs who declare themselves as landlords, or 13% of parliamentarians who own 184 rental properties between them. And Jas Athwal is the biggest landlord out of them all, renting out 15 residential properties and three commercial properties.
Labour has 44 landlords, 11% of its 404 MPs, the Tory party has 28, a quarter of its 121 MPs, and the Liberal Democrats have eight among their 72 MPs.
The government insists Ms Ali has done everything in accordance with the law, and there is no evidence to suggest her conduct was illegal. But Labour need to be careful not to let hypocrisy in their ranks be something that sticks.
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Nothing has emerged so far that’s such an explicit rule break that it would trigger an automatic sacking or resignation and a spokesperson for Ms Ali said she takes her responsibilities seriously and “the tenants stayed for the entirety of their fixed term contract, and were informed they could stay beyond the expiration of the fixed term, while the property remained on the market, but this was not taken up, and they decided to leave the property”.
But we have seen this previously when the anti-corruption minister, Tulip Siddiq, eventually resigned after the ministerial standards adviser, Sir Laurie Magnus, ruled she had not broken the ministerial code, but had “inadvertently misled” the public about a flat gifted by an ally of her aunt, Bangladesh’s ousted former prime minister.
The danger for Ms Ali – and by extension, Sir Keir Starmer – is that it may start to look bad just keeping her around, potentially endorsing this behaviour, and she becomes politically paralysed simply by the weight of the allegation.
Homelessness minister Rushanara Ali has resigned after reportedly hiking the rent on a property she owns by hundreds of pounds – something described by one of her tenants as “extortion”.
That was just weeks after the previous tenants’ contract ended, The i Paper said.
Four tenants who rented a house in east London from Ms Ali were sent an email last November saying their lease would not be renewed, and which also gave them four months’ notice to leave, the newspaper reported.
The property was then re-listed with a £700 rent increase within weeks, the publication added.
In a letter to the prime minister, Ms Ali said that remaining in her role would be a “distraction from the ambitious work of this government”.
She added: “Further to recent reporting, I wanted to make it clear that at all times I have followed all relevant legal requirements.
“I believe I took my responsibilities and duties seriously, and the facts demonstrate this.”
Laura Jackson, one of Ms Ali’s former tenants, said she and three others collectively paid £3,300 in rent.
Weeks after she and her fellow tenants had left, the self-employed restaurant owner said she saw the house re-listed with a rent of around £4,000.
“It’s an absolute joke,” she said. “Trying to get that much money from renters is extortion.”
Sir Keir Starmer said Ms Ali’s work in government would leave a ‘lasting legacy’. Pic: PA
Ms Ali’s house, rented on a fixed-term contract, was put up for sale while the tenants were living there, and was only relisted as a rental because it had not sold, according to The i Paper.
The government’s Renters’ Rights Bill includes measures to ban landlords who end a tenancy to sell a property from re-listing it for six months.
The Bill, which is nearing its end stages of scrutiny in Parliament, will also abolish fixed-term tenancies and ensure landlords give four months’ notice if they want to sell their property.
Something Sir Keir’s increasingly unpopular government could have done without
Rushanara Ali’s swift and humiliating demise is a classic example of paying the price for the politician’s crime of “Do as I say, not as I do”.
She was Labour’s minister for homelessness, for goodness’ sake, yet she ejected tenants from her near-£1m town house then hiked the rent.
A more egregious case of ministerial double standards it would be difficult to imagine. She had to go and was no doubt told by 10 Downing Street to go quickly.
MP for the East End constituency of Bethnal Green and Stepney, Ms Ali was the very model of a modern Labour minister: a degree in PPE from Oxford University.
In her resignation letter to Sir Keir Starmer, she said she is quitting “with a heavy heart”. Really? She presumably didn’t have a heavy heart when she ejected her four tenants.
She’d previously spoken out against “private renters being exploited” and said the government would “empower people to challenge unreasonable rent increases”.
She was charging her four former tenants £3,300 a month. Yet after they moved out, she charged her new tenants £4,000, a rent increase of more than 20%.
In an area represented by the left-wing firebrand George Galloway from 2005 to 2010, Ms Ali had a majority of under 1,700 at the election last year.
Ominously for Labour, an independent candidate was second and the Greens third. No doubt Jeremy Corbyn’s new party will also stand next time.
In her resignation letter to the PM, Ms Ali said continuing in her ministerial role would be a distraction. Too right.
A distraction Sir Keir and his increasingly unpopular government could have done without.
Responding to her resignation, shadow housing secretary Sir James Cleverly said: “I said that her actions were total hypocrisy and that she should go if the accusations were shown to be true.”
A Liberal Democrat spokesperson said: “Rushanara Ali fundamentally misunderstood her role. Her job was to tackle homelessness, not to increase it.”
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Previously, a spokesperson for Ms Ali said the tenants “stayed for the entirety of their fixed term contract, and were informed they could stay beyond the expiration of the fixed term, while the property remained on the market, but this was not taken up, and they decided to leave the property”.
The prime minister thanked Ms Ali for her “diligent work” and for helping to “deliver this government’s ambitious agenda”.
Sir Keir Starmer said her work in putting in measures to repeal the Vagrancy Act would have a “significant impact”.
And he said she had been trying to encourage “more people to engage and participate in our democracy”, something that would leave a “lasting legacy”.
Politics
Rushanara Ali: Humiliating demise for Labour minister after a most egregious case of double standards
Rushanara Ali’s swift and humiliating demise is a classic example of paying the price for the politician’s crime of “do as I say, not as I do”.
She was Labour’s minister for homelessness, for goodness’ sake, yet she ejected tenants from her near-£1m town house and then hiked the rent.
Politics Hub: Minister’s resignation as it happened
A more egregious case of ministerial double standards it would be difficult to imagine. She had to go and was no doubt told by 10 Downing Street to go quickly.
Rushanara Ali reportedly hiked the rent on a property she owns. Pic: PA
‘A heavy heart’ – really?
MP for the East End constituency of Bethnal Green and Stepney, Ms Ali was the very model of a modern Labour minister: A degree in PPE from Oxford University.
In her resignation letter to Sir Keir Starmer, she said she is quitting “with a heavy heart”. Really? She presumably didn’t have a heavy heart when she ejected her four tenants.
She’d previously spoken out against “private renters being exploited” and said her government would “empower people to challenge unreasonable rent increases”.
The now former minister was charging her four former tenants £3,300 a month. Yet after they moved out, she charged her new tenants £4,000 – a rent increase of more than 20%.
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The report about the Labour MP first emerged in the i newspaper. Pic: UK Parliament
A fragile constituency for Labour?
In an area represented by the left-wing firebrand George Galloway from 2005 to 2010, Ms Ali had a majority of under 1,700 at the election last year.
Ominously for Labour, an independent candidate was second and the Greens third. No doubt Jeremy Corbyn’s new party will also stand next time.
In her resignation letter to the PM, Ms Ali said continuing in her ministerial role would be a distraction. Too right.
A distraction Sir Keir and his increasingly unpopular government could have done without.
Federal Reserve Board of Governors member Adriana Kugler announced her resignation on Aug. 1, paving the way for a Trump nominee at the US central bank.
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