SNP call for Keir Starmer to 'immediately' sack Homelessness Minister

KEIR Starmer must "immediately" sack his Homelessness Minister after she evicted tenants and hiked rent to £4000 per month, the SNP have said.

SNP Westminster depute leader Pete Wishart warned that "if this Minister is still in post by the end of the day it will expose how weak the Prime Minister is and just how out of touch this UK Labour Government are".

It comes as the i Paper revealed that Labour’s Homelessness Minister, Rushanara Ali MP, evicted four tenants from one of her London properties before relisting it for £700 a month more in rent.

The tenants were given four months to leave, with the MP saying she intended to sell the property, before it was relisted with the rent increasing from £3300 to £4000.

The MP for Bethnal Green and Stepney has previously been vocal on renters' rights and has spoken out against “private renters being exploited".

Under Labour’s Renters’ Rights Bill, the UK Government plans to bring the private rented sector within the minimum standard set for social housing, and would ban landlords who end a tenancy to sell a property from re-listing it for six months.

Wishart said: “Once this shameful story broke, Labour's Homelessness Minister should have immediately resigned. The fact that she still hasn’t means this is now a direct test of Keir Starmer – he needs to sack her immediately. “It is a statement of the blinding obvious that a Homelessness Minister who made money by putting people on the street can’t stay in office. “If this Minister is still in post by the end of the day it will expose how weak the Prime Minister is and just how out of touch this UK Labour Government are.

“This time last year the public were learning of the free clothes given to the Prime Minister, now we are hearing about a Labour minister profiteering by putting tenants on the street. "The last year has exposed example after example that this UK Labour Government aren’t on the public’s side – they are up to their necks in sleaze every bit as deeply as the Tories they replaced.   “For those of us in Scotland, this is the same story of Westminster sleaze on repeat – it is one more reminder why it is so important that we take our future into our own hands and become an independent country.”