Rachel Reeves faces no further action over landlord rule-break as letting agent takes responsibility

The Chancellor previously admitted to mistakenly breaching local council housing rules in South London by failing to secure a “selective” licence for the property when it was rented out following her move into No 11 Downing Street.

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” in not applying for a licence on her behalf, despite having agreed to do so.

The Prime Minister said in a letter to Ms Reeves, published late 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 in her first letter to him about the matter on Wednesday, but said he accepted she was “acting in good faith”.

“It would clearly have been better if you and your husband had conducted a full trawl through all email correspondence with the estate agency before writing to me yesterday,” the Labour leader said.

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 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.”

Sir Keir had accepted Ms Reeves’s initial explanation and apology on Wednesday, when she told him that “regrettably” she and her family were not aware a licence was needed in their area of Southwark, where they rented out their home for £3,200 a month.

The Prime Minister said he was happy the “matter can be drawn to a close” after consulting his ethics adviser, who decided against launching a probe.

However, Kevin Hollinrake, the chairman of the Conservative Party and MP for Thirsk and Malton, accused Ms Reeves of “hypocrisy”, before adding “her story keeps on changing”.

It comes after it emerged that Ms Reeves backed a landlord licensing scheme in Armley, in her Leeds West and Pudsey constituency.

Only last week, she posted on X: “I welcome Leeds City Council's decision to expand their selective landlord licensing policy to include the Armley area.

“While many private landlords operate in the right way, we know that lots of private tenants in Armley face problems with poorly maintained housing.”