Bombshell Reeves emails released in full as housing saga explodes | Politics | News


But the lettings agency insisted it had told Ms Reeves that she needed a licence.

This contradicted the claim made by Ms Reeves in her letter to the Prime Minister earlier this week, when she said: โ€œRegrettably, we were not aware that a licence was necessary, and so we did not obtain the licence before letting the property out.โ€

A Conservative Party spokesman said:”Last night Rachel Reeves said ‘she had not been made aware of the licensing requirement’.

“Today, we find out that Reeves was alerted to the need for a licence in writing by the estate agents. Having been caught out, the Chancellor is now trying to make the estate agents take the blame, but Reeves never followed up with them to ensure that the licence had been applied for, or checked if the licence had been granted. Regardless, under the law, Reeves and her husband are responsible for ensuring the licence is granted.

“With more information coming to light every few hours, the Prime Minister needs to grow a backbone and start a proper investigation.”

Sir Keir and his independent adviser on ministerial standards received โ€œnew informationโ€ regarding rental arrangements for the Chancellorโ€™s family home on Thursday afternoon, No10 said referring to the emails.

It reopened the row surrounding Ms Reeves’s breach of local council housing rules by failing to obtain a rental licence, after the Prime Minister sought to draw a line under the issue earlier today.

A No 10 spokesman told reporters: โ€œFollowing a review of emails sent and received by the Chancellorโ€™s husband, new information has come to light.

โ€œThis information has been passed to the Prime Minister and his independent adviser.โ€

The spokesman declined to give further details but insisted Sir Keir โ€œhas full confidenceโ€ in Ms Reeves and that she would be delivering the highly-anticipated November 26 Budget.

Asked whether the autumn statement would be delivered by the current Chancellor on the expected date, the official confirmed it would.

In a letter to the Prime Minister on Wednesday, the Chancellor admitted she did not obtain a โ€œselectiveโ€ rental licence required to rent out her London home and apologised for the โ€œinadvertent errorโ€.

In his response, Sir Keir said he was happy the โ€œmatter can be drawn to a closeโ€ after consulting his ethics adviser, who decided against launching a probe.

Opposition critics have argued the Government has questions to answer and demanded an investigation.

Leave comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked with *.