Rachel Reeves Caught Renting Out Her Integrity

Labour’s “Rachel from Accounts” seems to have discovered that rules, much like housing, are optional if you can afford them.

Rachel Reeves has admitted she broke housing regulations after failing to obtain a selective rental licence for her London home, the same property she began letting out after moving into No. 11 Downing Street.

According to reports in the Daily Mail, Reeves, who loves lecturing the public about responsibility and fiscal discipline, somehow overlooked the need to follow her own council’s rules. Southwark Council requires landlords in certain areas to get a licence before renting out their properties. The chancellor didn’t.

Southwark Council said the licences were brought in to ‘improve safety, security and quality for people living in private rented homes’.

They cost £900 and landlords must submit documents proving their property is fit for purpose, including gas, electrical and fire safety certificates, floor plans and tenancy agreements.

Failing to obtain a licence when required is a criminal offence and can be punishable with an unlimited fine on prosecution, a fine of £30,000 as an alternative to prosecution, or the landlord could be ordered to pay back up to 12 months’ rent.

A spokesperson for Reeves insisted this was all an innocent mistake, blaming a letting agency that apparently forgot to mention the legal requirement. “As soon as it was brought to her attention, she took immediate action,” they said, confirming Reeves has now applied for the licence and informed Keir Starmer, the independent adviser on ministerial standards, and the parliamentary commissioner.

That’s very noble of her, after getting caught.

For context, Reeves is responsible for a Treasury that plans to tighten regulations on ordinary landlords, while the rest of the country battles record rents and a housing crisis fuelled by decades of deregulation. Yet when it comes to her own portfolio, it seems the paperwork slipped through the cracks, along with Labour’s moral authority on housing.

It’s a familiar pattern: one rule for those in power, another for everyone else. Angela Rayner was hounded to the brink for allegedly receiving “the wrong advice” over her housing arrangements and ultimately forced to fall on her sword. Reeves, it appears, will simply “apply for the licence” and move on.

Let’s remember: this is the same chancellor who once promised to end the Tory culture of rule-bending and sleaze. Keir Starmer himself thundered, “Lawmakers can’t be lawbreakers.” Now that the lawbreaker is his own chancellor, we’ll see just how much backbone he’s really got, or whether “integrity” was just another campaign soundbite.

The timing couldn’t be worse. Reeves faces mounting scrutiny ahead of her first budget, with even Labour MPs grumbling that the party’s economic vision looks more like reheated Osborne than New Jerusalem. And now, just weeks before she delivers her big moment, the chancellor finds herself explaining to the public why “honest mistakes” only ever seem to happen to people in power.

Reeves’s little licensing lapse might look minor on paper, but it’s symbolic. Because for most working people, missing a council licence isn’t a PR problem. It’s a fine. It’s a court letter. It’s a criminal record.

In the Britain, Reeves helps run, there’s one rule for tenants, another for landlords, and a different one altogether for ministers who happen to be landlords.

Paul Knaggs

Editor, founder, Labour Heartlands, Citizen journalist. 𝙁𝙧𝙚𝙚𝙗𝙤𝙧𝙣 𝙀𝙣𝙜𝙡𝙞𝙨𝙝 𝙍𝙖𝙙𝙞𝙘𝙖𝙡 𝙎𝙤𝙘𝙞𝙖𝙡𝙞𝙨𝙩. Fighting a constant struggle with dyslexia that’s overcome with a burning desire to speak out against the corrupt political system and the social injustices it creates. Advocate for Free speech and open, accountable, democracy. #GTTO