Downing Street has refused to say whether Rachel Reeves will have to resign if Southwark Council slaps her with a fine over illegally renting out her house. A reminder that a court-imposed fine is a criminal conviction. And Southwark Council is ‘committed to holding landlords to account’…
Starmer’s spokesman instead said he would not get into “hypotheticals“, referring back to last night’s urgent exchange of letters between the PM and Reeves. Which showed Ethics Adviser Laurie Magnus said on this occasion Reeves’ apology for the ‘inadvertent’ error was suffice, and so no investigation was necessary…
Starmer’s spokesman refused to say if Magnus took any steps to actually investigate whether Reeves’ error really was inadvertent. The PM’s spokesman said he “didn’t accept” the obvious argument that just relying on a minister’s words undermines past and future ethics investigations. Yet somehow Starmer still stands by his claim that ‘rule-breakers cannot be rule-makers’…
