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MINISTER for homelessness Rushanara Ali has resigned after calls for her to quit.
It comes after reports the Labour MP threw out the people living at her east London property and later re-listed it for hundreds more.
According to the i Paper, she previously rented the four-bedroom townhouse out for £3,300 a month.
But new tenants were forced to fork out an eye-watering £4,000 a month for the home – a stone’s throw away from Olympic Park.
The landlord MP, who owns two rental properties, is known for her fight against private renters “being exploited” and championed reform against “unreasonable rent increases”.
In fact, Labour’s Renters’ Rights Bill will ban landlords who are trying to sell their property from relisting it for higher rent less than six months after tenants move out.
The minister wrote confirmed her resignation today in a letter shared to social media.
She wrote: “It is with a heavy heart that I offer you my resignation as a Minister.
“It has been the honour of my life to have played my part in first securing and then serving as part of this Labour Government.
“You have my continued commitment, loyalty and support.”
She added: “Further to recent reporting, I wanted to make it clear that at all times I have followed all relevant legal requirements.
“I believe I took my responsibilities and duties seriously, and the facts demonstrate this.
“However, it is clear that continuing in my role will be a distraction from the ambitious work of the government. I have therefore decided to resign from my Ministerial position.”
Conservative shadow Housing Secretary, James Cleverly, said previously how the allegations against Ms Ali “would be an example of the most extreme hypocrisy and that she should not have the job as homelessness minister”.
Laura Jackson was one of the four people who rented from Ms Ali.
The self-employed restaurant owner was told in November she had four months to leave.
Ms Jackson, 33, told The i Paper: “It’s an absolute joke. Trying to get that much money from renters is extortion”.
The property was managed on Ali’s behalf by two lettings agencies, Jack Barclay Estates and Avenue Lettings.
They told tenants they’d be charged nearly a staggering £2,400 for the house to be repainted and professionally cleaned.
But landlords are not allowed to charge tenants for professional cleaning under the Tenant Fees Act 2019.
Ms Jackson dubbed the “exploitative” charges “ridiculous and unfair”.
However, they were dropped when the firms were told the landlord was a Labour MP.
It is understood Ms Ali was told of the fees and cancelled them.
Ben Twomey, the chief executive of Generation Rent, said: “These allegations are shocking and a wake-up call to Government on the need to push ahead as quickly as possible to improve protections for renters.
“It is bad enough when any landlord turfs out their tenant to hike up the rent, or tries their luck with unfair claims on the deposit, but the minister responsible for homelessness knows only too well about the harm caused by this behaviour.”
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