James Saunders
Guest Reporter
Sir Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves are renting out their homes for thousands of pounds after moving into Downing Street, it has emerged.
Just days after a row erupted over the party's definition of "working people", it has come to light that the two Labour leading lights are both landlords, according to a new list of ministerial declarations.
The Prime Minister's four-bed north London home - valued at some £2million - is up for rent, despite Starmer having paid off his mortgage earlier this year.
While the Chancellor's own four-bedroom pad, in the south of the capital, is also open to tenants.
The market rate for homes like Starmer's in trendy Kentish Town sits between £3,000 and £5,000 a month - more than the median household income per month in the same area, which Camden Council says is a little over £2,900.
Meanwhile, Reeves and her civil servant husband Nicholas Joicey are together bringing in £74,000 every year from tenants.
The Telegraph revealed that Joicey also lets out a two-bedroom flat in central London, even though the pair bought their family home 12 years ago for £599,950.
At the same time, Rushanara Ali, a junior minister responsible for homelessness and rough sleeping, owns a pair of residential rental properties.
MORE LABOUR ROWS - READ NEXT:
The reveals come thanks to the new list of ministerial declarations, released alongside an update to the ministerial code which tells ministers to consider the public perception of accepting free gifts in the wake of Labour's "donorgate" scandal.
The update, revealed by The Times on Tuesday, has been hailed by Pat McFadden, the chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, who called it "instrumental in setting out the high standards that the British people expect and that ministers must follow".
The refreshed code now says ministers and their family members should not accept gifts or hospitality which could "compromise their judgment or place them under any obligation to people or organisations that might try inappropriately to influence their work in Government".
Ministers are also told to be "mindful" of public "confidence" in Government standards when making decisions about whether to accept gifts or hospitality.
Other changes include an explicit reference to international law and treaty obligations, which had previously been removed, as well as handing special advisers and staffers the right to an annual salary review.
The changes have come under fire from Kemi Badenoch's new shadow to Pat McFadden, Alex Burghart, who accused Labour of using the US election to obscure the new changes.
He said: "It is the height of cynicism to use the US election result to throw out the trash. In the small print, Labour has surrendered to foreign courts, admitted that the trade unions run the country, given a green light to more freebies, signalled more money to spin doctors and watered down government openness.
"Yet again, it's more broken promises from the Labour Party who are as transparent as mud."
Find Out More...
Just days after a row erupted over the party's definition of "working people", it has come to light that the two Labour leading lights are both landlords, according to a new list of ministerial declarations.
The Prime Minister's four-bed north London home - valued at some £2million - is up for rent, despite Starmer having paid off his mortgage earlier this year.
While the Chancellor's own four-bedroom pad, in the south of the capital, is also open to tenants.
The market rate for homes like Starmer's in trendy Kentish Town sits between £3,000 and £5,000 a month - more than the median household income per month in the same area, which Camden Council says is a little over £2,900.
Meanwhile, Reeves and her civil servant husband Nicholas Joicey are together bringing in £74,000 every year from tenants.
The Telegraph revealed that Joicey also lets out a two-bedroom flat in central London, even though the pair bought their family home 12 years ago for £599,950.
At the same time, Rushanara Ali, a junior minister responsible for homelessness and rough sleeping, owns a pair of residential rental properties.
MORE LABOUR ROWS - READ NEXT:
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- Labour need to 'build bridges' with the US after David Lammy's tweets, says Mel Stride
- EXPOSED: The 48 Labour MPs who made ‘broken promises’ to reduce energy bills pre-election
The reveals come thanks to the new list of ministerial declarations, released alongside an update to the ministerial code which tells ministers to consider the public perception of accepting free gifts in the wake of Labour's "donorgate" scandal.
The update, revealed by The Times on Tuesday, has been hailed by Pat McFadden, the chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, who called it "instrumental in setting out the high standards that the British people expect and that ministers must follow".
The refreshed code now says ministers and their family members should not accept gifts or hospitality which could "compromise their judgment or place them under any obligation to people or organisations that might try inappropriately to influence their work in Government".
Ministers are also told to be "mindful" of public "confidence" in Government standards when making decisions about whether to accept gifts or hospitality.
Other changes include an explicit reference to international law and treaty obligations, which had previously been removed, as well as handing special advisers and staffers the right to an annual salary review.
The changes have come under fire from Kemi Badenoch's new shadow to Pat McFadden, Alex Burghart, who accused Labour of using the US election to obscure the new changes.
He said: "It is the height of cynicism to use the US election result to throw out the trash. In the small print, Labour has surrendered to foreign courts, admitted that the trade unions run the country, given a green light to more freebies, signalled more money to spin doctors and watered down government openness.
"Yet again, it's more broken promises from the Labour Party who are as transparent as mud."
Find Out More...