Rachel Reeves may be forced to pay back tens of thousands in rent to her tenants after leasing her Southwark home without a license.
Southwark’s rules on housing allow tenants to claim up to 12 months of rent if they’re a tenant of an unlicensed property.
Given that Reeves has been renting out her £3,200-a-month London pad without a license since she moved to 11 Downing Street last summer, that means tenants are able to claim up to £38,400 back.
It’s yet another financial hole for a chancellor beset by financial troubles, with a £20bn gap in the country’s finances to fill in this Autumn’s budget.
It comes 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.
Shadow foreign secretary Priti Patel chimed in to say “Southwark Council must prosecute her for breaking the law & Starmer should sack her”.
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”.
In a letter to the PM, Reeves said: “I sincerely apologise for this error and I would be happy to answer any questions you may have.”
Starmer said that he was satisfied that the “matter can be drawn to a close”.