Did the homelessness minister evict her own tenants for profit?
The News Agents
Global
4.2 • 4.3K Ratings
🗓️ 7 August 2025
⏱️ 40 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Labour's homelessness minister is facing fury from her own side and calls to resign - not for her track record in government but her track record as a landlord. Rushnara Ali, the MP for Bethnal Green and Stepney, rented out a four-bedroom townhouse in east London, and the tenants have gone to the press to complain about their treatment. One told the I newspaper that they received an email saying that the lease on their tenancy would not be renewed as Ms Ali was looking to sell the property - and yet just weeks after they left, they found that the house back on the rental market at nearly £700 a month more.
To make matters worse, this practice is set to be banned under legislation being introduced by this government. The Tories are suggesting that she exploited her tenants and are accusing her of staggering hypocrisy. Can she survive? And how damaging is this for the government? Lewis speaks to the I's housing correspondent Vicky Spratt, who broke the story, and LBC's political correspondent Aggie Chambre.
Later - will the much-anticipated meeting between Presidents Trump and Putin actually happen? And what would it mean for Ukraine? Mark Urban, host of the Crisis Room podcast, reads the runes.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The Newsagents podcast is brought to you by HSBC UK, opening up a world of opportunity. |
| 0:09.1 | This is a global player original podcast. |
| 0:12.7 | We are introducing the renters rights bill, which will end no-fault evictions. |
| 0:19.5 | We cannot let short-term, let's undermine the availability of affordable |
| 0:23.4 | housing for people to buy and rent. That is Roshanara Ali, the Labour MP for Bethnal Green, |
| 0:30.7 | speaking in the House of Commons about the scourge of eviction, as well as she might, because since |
| 0:35.7 | the election, she's been the homelessness minister. |
| 0:38.3 | Now you probably agree with what she said. Short-term tenancies, the instability they cause, |
| 0:43.5 | the anxiety they can induce with that dreaded phone call you can get from a landlord saying |
| 0:49.3 | that you have to get out of your home and soon through no fault of your own. Well, here's the thing. It turns out |
| 0:56.4 | that Rushinara Ali is not just the Minister for Homelessness, but a landlord for two properties. |
| 1:02.5 | And not only that, she's accused as a housing minister of, well, taking away someone's house, |
| 1:09.6 | potentially in a way which could soon be illegal under changes |
| 1:14.4 | her government, her department, is about to introduce. It's not completely ideal, is it? Welcome to the |
| 1:23.0 | newsagents. The news agents. |
| 1:29.5 | The news agents. |
| 1:33.4 | Right, you may have heard a flurry of news in the last 24 hours about a potential face-to-face meeting between President Trump and Putin on Ukraine, notably perhaps, not |
| 1:38.7 | including President Zelensky. |
| 1:40.4 | Yes, I know we've been here before, but it feels like maybe, maybe it might just be different this time and we will get to that story. But first, as I say, Russianara Ali is now facing calls to resign following the story that one of her previous tenants has gone to a newspaper with their story that their tenancy was brought to an end by Ali, that the house in London would be sold, they were told, and that's the reason the tenancy had to come to an end, only to later discover that it hadn't been sold after all, and in the interim, the rent had gone up by an extra £700. While we're joined now in our own newsagent's Little Abode by Victoria Spratt, housing correspondent for the I, |
| 2:17.9 | who broke the story, and Aguichechonbury, of course, friend of the show. Not that you're not a friend |
| 2:22.3 | of the show, Victoria. Thanks so much. Both friends of the show. Aguizondri, obviously, political |
| 2:26.6 | correspondents also here. Vicki, just give us the outline of the story. Well, for anybody who hasn't |
... |
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