Sir Keir Starmer has told Rachel Reeves she faces no further action over her “inadvertent” failure to obtain a rental licence for her south London family home.
The Chancellor previously admitted to mistakenly breaching local council housing rules by failing to secure a “selective” licence for the property when it was rented out following her move into No 11.
She initially said that she was unaware of the requirement, but emails between her husband and the letting agency published on Thursday showed he had been informed about the need for a licence.
But estate agents Harvey & Wheeler took the blame for the “oversight” that led to them not applying for a licence on their behalf, despite having agreed to do so.
The Prime Minister said in a letter to Ms Reeves, published on Thursday night, that after reviewing the correspondence, “I still regard this as a case of an inadvertent failure to secure the appropriate licence, which you have apologised for and are now rectifying”.
He added: “Having consulted the Independent Adviser on Ministerial Standards and received his clear and swift advice, with which I concur, I see no need for any further action.”
Sir Keir said it was “regrettable” that she had not shared the information with him when the story emerged on Wednesday, but said he accepted she was “acting in good faith”.
The Prime Minister’s independent standards adviser, Sir Laurie Magnus, told him that after seeing the emails, he still believed Ms Reeves made an “unfortunate but inadvertent error”.
In a letter to Sir Keir, he said he found “no evidence of bad faith” in Ms Reeves’s contradicting statements about her awareness of the need for the licence.
Sir Laurie wrote: “It is important to address the Chancellor’s statement in her letter to you of 29th October that she and her husband were not aware of the need for a licence. This was a key consideration reflected in my advice to you yesterday.”However, emails identified since then, and made public today, demonstrate that the Chancellor’s husband was in fact made aware of the need for a licence during the summer of 2024 and that he instructed the estate agency to obtain the licence accordingly.
“It is clear from his explanation today that the Chancellor’s husband did not recall this exchange, which took place at a very busy time.”
He added: “It is regrettable that information provided on successive days has generated confusion, but I find no evidence of bad faith.”
