-
14/7/25 8:13 pm
Thank you! Your submission has been received!
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.
Rebel Labour MP Zarah Sultana (main image) has called for fellow parliamentarians to be banned from being landlords.
Sultana, the Coventry South MP who is setting up the left-wing Your Party with Jeremy Corbyn, has tabled an Early Day Motion which states: "Members should be wholly focused on serving their constituents without the influence of financial interests in the rental housing market; and therefore calls on the government to bring forward legislation to prohibit hon.
"Members from owning and letting out residential properties for private profit during their time in office."
She has tabled the motion in conjunction with tenant union ACORN, which so far has gained support from Jim Shannon of the Democratic Unionist Party and fellow Independent Neil Duncan-Jordan.
Of the current 650 MPs, 85 (13%) are landlords and 44 of these are Labour MPs
Of the current 650 MPs, 85 (13%) are landlords and 44 of these are Labour MPs, according to analysis by the FT.
“Parliament can’t fix the housing crisis when it’s packed with people who profit from it,” ACORN head organiser Nick Ballard told The Canary. “It’s a clear conflict of interest and as long as landlord MPs are writing the rules, renters will keep losing out. Ending landlord influence on our laws is the bare minimum if we want to see housing policy that’s fair to renters.”
Sutlana’s Early Day Motion follows the furore over landlord and former homelessness minister Rushanara Ali who was outed for evicting tenants from her London property, then re-letting it after raising the rent.
Earlier this year, Ilford South MP Jas Athwal was found to be renting out mouldy and unlicensed flats and stood down as a councillor for Redbridge Council.
Sultana has also criticised rogue landlords, recently telling the New Left Review: “We should all be angry when we think about what’s happened to these working-class communities, and we should harness those feelings to make a very clear argument – that the problem is not migrant labour but exploitative landlords, greedy energy companies, privatised services".
Tags:
Comments