Rushanara Ali's resignation hands yet another gift to Nigel Farage

Times

a day ago

For a government with a majority of more than 150, Sir Keir Starmer's administration already has a strangely beleaguered air. Losing a fourth minister over personal scandals in little more than a year will only add to the damaging sense of exhaustion, more familiar from the end of a term of office than the start.
Rushanara Ali's resignation as homelessness minister was at least swifter than that of Tulip Siddiq, who exposed Starmer to weeks of painful headlines about whether it was really possible to remain as anti-corruption minister while facing questions her links to her aunt's ousted Bangladeshi regime.
But Ali's departure also comes with less of a sense that she was pushed out than Louise Haigh's resignation as transport secretary over a past fraud conviction, or Andrew Gwynne's sacking as health minister over offensive WhatsApp messages.
• Homelessness minister quits after 'hiking rent at house by £700 a month'
Indeed, No 10 initially failed to see the problem and went on the offensive on Ali's behalf. A senior government official even phoned an executive at the i paper, which broke the story, to demand they retract claims that Ali had ejected her tenants. Senior ministers including the chancellor and home secretary were then sent out to say Ali had not broken any rules.
It quickly became obvious on Thursday that this stance was not tenable. Ali had indeed not broken any rules — but only because the government's Renters' Rights Bill banning exactly what she had done were not yet in force.
It is reasonable to argue that Ali did nothing wrong in giving her tenants notice because she was trying to sell her house and then, when she failed to do so, reletting it at a market rent.
It is also perfectly reasonable to argue that booting out tenants and then jacking up the rent is so egregious that it should be made illegal.
What it is not reasonable is to make both arguments simultaneously. By Thursday afternoon all main opposition parties were calling for Ali to quit and it became clear she had lost the confidence of housing charities.
There was public criticism from some on the Labour left, always unhappy with the idea of MPs being landlords. Even some Labour MPs expressed private frustration that Ali could not see how bad it looked.
Starmer rode to power on a wave of public disgust at a Tory government where — as he repeatedly put it — it seemed like there was 'one rule for them, another for everyone else'. Labour may feel that Tory accusations of 'staggering hypocrisy' are, well, staggering hypocrisy. But there is no doubt about how corrosive it will be for Starmer if voters start to believe that Labour have become as sleazy and hypocritical as the last lot.
After all, a party whose core argument is that they are all the same and all as bad as each other is leading in the polls. Once again, the person who will be happiest this morning is Nigel Farage.