Tom Harwood was up in arms as a political commentator insisted that Rachel Reeves’s rule-breaking over house letting laws was “not a sackable offence”.
The Chancellor became the subject of a slew of criticism for her “inadvertent mistake” last night when she wrote to Sir Keir Starmer admitting she failed to obtain a licence to rent out her London home.
She subsequently informed the Prime Minister that she took “immediate action and applied for the licence” as soon as she was aware of the breach.
As a result, Kemi Badenoch led demands for Southwark council to launch an investigation into the error and, if found guilty, the Leeds MP should resign.
While the local authority has since confirmed that it will not take any action against Ms Reeves, the Prime Minister’s ethics adviser, Sir Laurie Magnus, is now examining fresh emails from Rachel Reeves’s husband concerning the letting controversy.
“It’s acutely embarrassing. I accept that. But it’s not a sackable offence,” Paul Connew told GB News stars Tom Harwood and Dawn Neesom.
Such a claim fuelled Tom’s rage, who claimed: “If anyone else, if any other landlord in the country did not operate with a license in one of these areas where you need a license to rent out your home.
“The law, as it stands, is that the people you are renting your property to are entitled to all of their rents back.”
The GB News star fumed over the latest scandal to engulf one of Labour’s big beasts
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GB NEWS
He continued: “This is money that has been improperly taken from her tenants by the Chancellor under the rules that she campaigned for and introduced.
“Now, you might say the rules are bonkers. I think the rules are bonkers. I think we’re far too licensed as it is as a country.
“It’s far too hard to do business without a Government licence here and a Government licence there and a local council licence over there. But these are the rules that Rachel Reeves herself campaigned for.”
But the furious tirade of the GB News Deputy Political Editor did not stop there, with the presenter making the attack far more personal.
“The charge is incompetence,” he fumed. “Frankly, is the Chancellor okay?
“She doesn’t seem to be on top of her brief. She doesn’t seem to be on top of her CV, and she doesn’t seem to be on top of her personal financial situation.”
“If I were to rent out a house that I was fortunate enough, a spare house that I was fortunate enough to have, I think I would want to follow the law.
“I don’t think it is an extreme or unreasonable expectation that people do follow the law.”
Earlier this morning, Kemi Badenoch led the Tories’ demand for an investigation into the freshly-lit scandal gracing the Labour Party.
Mrs Badenoch demanded that should the scandal uncover anything criminal, the Chancellor be booted from No11.
Even from her junior Labour colleagues, Ms Reeves will have her feet put to the fire.
“Ignorance of the law is no defence,” a Labour MP told The Telegraph.
“Starmer is a lawyer, he knows how the system works, but he is clinging on to his Chancellor because she is his last line of defence.”