No 10 releases letters from Reeves and Starmer about chancellor inadvertently renting home with necessary licence
Good morning. Ministers often complain about Whitehall being slow and inefficient, but last night the government’s ethical standards machinery settled a misconduct allegation in record time. After the Daily Mail revealed that Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, had inadvertently rented out her south London home without requiring the specific licence required by the council, before midnight Downing Street had already released an exchange of letters on the issue between Reeves and Keir Starmer.
Mail splash Photograph: Daily Mail
Reeves apologised for the mistake. Her spokesperson has said that the letting agency she used told her a licence was not needed.
Reeves’s letter Photograph: No 10
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And Starmer said that he had already consulted his ethics adviser, Sir Laurie Magnus, who had advised that, in the light of Reeves’s apology and her willingess to rectify the situation, no further action was needed.
Starmer’s letter Photograph: No 10
So, from Downing Street’s perspective, the whole thing was sorted before the Mail’s final edition went to press.
In many European countries, this would not even come close to registering as a scandal and it would all be swifty forgotten. But, with a censorious media, and papers like the Mail actively hostile to Labour, Starmer and Reeves are unlikely to shut down the story quite that easily. Starmer is also open to the accusation of double standards. In other cases where ministers have been accused of breaching the ministerial code of conduct, he has taken a strict approach to enforcing the rules. Angela Rayner also inadvertently failed to comply with the relevant legislation in relation to a housing matter, and that led to her having to resign.
Kemi Badenoch is due to give a speech shortly and she is not letting up. Last night she said that, if Reeves broke the law (and Southwark council says not having the right licence is a criminal offence), she should resign.
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.
And this morning, highlighting a recent tweet from Reeves in which the chancellor welcomed a selective licensing policy for landlords in Leeds, Badenoch said it was hard to believe she did not know she needed a licence for her London rental home.
Rachel Reeves was celebrating the renting law being expanded in her constituency, at the same time she was breaking that law with her own house
Claiming that she wasn’t aware of these laws is about as credible as her CV.
Here is the agenda for the day.
Morning: John Swinney, Scotland’s first minister and the SNP leader, and Rhun ap Iorwerth, the Plaid Cymru leader, are meeting in Edinburgh to discuss a joint approach to countering “Westminster’s despair and decline”.
9am: Kemi Badenoch and Mel Stride, the shadow chancellor, speak at a Conservative press conference in London.
9.30am: Peter Kyle, the business secretary, takes questions in the Commons.
9.30am: The Ministry of Justice publishes quarterly figures relating to prisons, including the number of assaults and deaths.
11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.
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Updated at 09.46 CET
