Lettings agency takes blame in Rachel Reeves licence row
Keir Starmer appears to have escaped the huge political damage of potentially losing his chancellor weeks before the budget, after 24 hours of intense scrutiny over whether Rachel Reeves broke the law when she rented out her family home.The Conservatives said Reeves must be sacked if she committed an offence by not obtaining a council licence before letting out her four-bedroom house in south London when the family moved into 11 Downing Street.No 10 was initially unable to explain why Starmer believed an apology from the chancellor was sufficient.But after a chaotic day, the lettings agency employed by Reeves said it was to blame for not applying for the licence, and apologised for the error.Emails subsequently released by Downing Street between the agency and Reeves’s husband, Nicholas Joicey, a senior civil servant, supported this version of events.
Kemi Badenoch, the Conservative leader, argued that this did not close the matter and called for Starmer to hold a full investigation.But with Southwark council saying it had no plans to take action against Reeves, her position seemed secure.Starmer confirmed there would be no further action after consulting with his independent adviser on ministerial standards, Laurie Magnus.In a letter to Reeves, he said: “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 … I see no need for any further action.”The departure of Reeves would have been a devastating blow for Starmer.
The chancellor is pulling together a budget, to be announced on 26 November, that is seen as crucial to the prospects of his government.It would also have been the second loss of a key minister in recent months, after Angela Rayner stood down as deputy prime minister and housing secretary in September over another property-related controversy, in her case the underpayment of stamp duty on an £800,000 seaside flat.The row over Reeves’s property affairs began on Wednesday evening with the publication of letters between her and Starmer about her failure to pay for a £945 “selective licence” before she let the home, as required in some parts of Southwark.In her letter, Reeves said she had been unaware of the need for a licence, and that she had applied as soon as she was made aware.In his reply, Starmer said that, having consulted Magnus, he was satisfied the breach was “inadvertent” and that given her prompt action once she knew about the licence, an apology was sufficient.
Downing Street refused to say whether Magnus had seen any evidence to support Reeves’s claim of having made an inadvertent mistake, or had taken her word for it,No 10 declined to say whether Reeves contravened the ministerial code or had potentially broken the law,Badenoch argued that if Reeves was fined she should be dismissed, citing Starmer’s argument after Boris Johnson’s fine for breaching Covid rules that “lawbreakers cannot be lawmakers”,In an early piece of good news for Reeves, Southwark released a statement saying that while it could not comment on individual cases, it pushed for enforcement action such as fines only when someone did not apply for a licence within 21 days of being warned they needed one, or if a property was found to be in an unsafe condition,No 10 later announced that Magnus had reopened his examination of the case after new information emerged in emails to and from Joicey.
Shortly afterwards, Harvey & Wheeler, an estate and lettings agency based in Dulwich, south London, said it took responsibility for the lack of licence.While owners of properties usually applied for these, it said, in this instance a now-departed staff member offered to do so on Reeves’s behalf and then did not.In a statement, the company said that “in an effort to be helpful” the then property manager offered to apply for a licence on behalf of Reeves’s family, but did not and then left the company just before the tenancy began.“Unfortunately, the lack of application was not picked up by us as we do not normally apply for licences on behalf of our clients; the onus is on them to apply.We have apologised to the owners for this oversight,” it said.
“We deeply regret the issue caused to our clients as they would have been under the impression that a licence had been applied for.”The emails released later by Downing Street between the agency and Joicey supported this narrative.A message from the agent to Joicey read: “I will do the selective licence once the new tenant moves in as I won’t need to do this just yet.At the moment as we are only applying for a council licence.”In response, Joicey asks the agency to “please, do go ahead” and obtain the licence, plus an electrical safety test, asking if any more administrative tasks needed to be completed.
In a new letter to Starmer, Reeves wrote that the agency had accepted responsibility, adding: “Nevertheless, as I said yesterday, I accept it was our responsibility to secure the licence.I also take responsibility for not finding this information yesterday and bringing it to your attention.“As I said to you today, I am sorry about this matter and accept full responsibility for it.”A Tory party spokesperson said: “Last night Rachel Reeves said ‘she had not been made aware of the licensing requirement’.Today, we find out that Reeves was alerted to the need for a licence in writing by the estate agents.
“Having been caught out, the chancellor is now trying to make the estate agents take the blame … With more information coming to light every few hours, the prime minister needs to grow a backbone and start a proper investigation.”
Nexperia halts chip supplies to China in threat to global car production
Nexperia, the EU-based automotive chipmaker at the centre of a geopolitical dispute, has suspended supplies to its Chinese factory, stepping up a trade war that threatens to halt production at carmakers around the world.The company wrote to customers this week informing them all supplies to a Chinese plant had been suspended.In September, the Netherlands used national security laws to take control of the chipmaker, citing concerns that its Chinese owner, Wingtech Technologies, was planning to shift intellectual property to another company it owned. The Dutch government said that threatened the future of European chip capacity, and removed the Wingtech chairman, Zhang Xuezheng, as chief executive.China responded by halting exports from all Nexperia’s factories in China, prompting warnings this week that the embargo would force production lines at EU car factories to close within days
JP Morgan warned US of $1bn in Epstein transactions possibly related to human trafficking
JP Morgan warned the US government about more than $1bn in transactions linked to Jeffrey Epstein that were possibly related to reports of human trafficking, new documents confirm.The largest bank in the US filed a suspicious activity report (SAR) in 2019, just weeks after Epstein was found dead in a New York jail cell, about transactions linked to the paedophile financier and prominent business figures. It also flagged wire transfers made by Epstein to Russian banks.JP Morgan’s report said it had flagged about 4,700 transactions, totalling more than $1bn, that were potentially related to reports of human trafficking involving Epstein, the New York Times reported. The report, filed during the last Trump administration, also flagged sensitivities around Epstein’s “relationships with two U
Apple reports record iPhone sales as new lineup reignites worldwide demand
Apple reported its first quarterly earnings since the release of its new lineup of iPhones on Thursday, beating Wall Street analysts’ expectations. The company showed steady financial growth and a strong bottom line despite slow progress on artificial intelligence. The report comes just days after the company hit a $4tn market value for the first time.“Today, Apple is very proud to report a September quarter revenue record of $102.5 billion, including a September quarter revenue record for iPhone and an all-time revenue record for Services,” Apple’s CEO, Tim Cook, said in a statement
Amazon reports strongest cloud growth since 2022 after major outage
Amazon has made its first financial disclosures since the disastrous outage suffered by its cloud computing division that brought everything from smart beds to banks offline.In spite of the global outage, Amazon Web Services has continued to grow, and this quarter reported a 20% increase in revenue year over year. Wall Street estimated that AWS would bring in $32.42bn in net sales in the third quarter, with the company reporting actual revenue of $33bn.“AWS is growing at a pace we haven’t seen since 2022,” CEO Andy Jassy said in a statement accompanying the earnings report
Liam Lawson cleared of blame by FIA for marshals scare at Mexico Grand Prix
Formula One’s governing body the FIA have issued a statement absolving the Racing Bulls driver Liam Lawson of all blame in an exceptionally dangerous incident when he came close to hitting two marshals running across the track in front of him at the Mexico Grand Prix.The statement is a strong rebuttal to an attempt to hold Lawson responsible made by the Mexican racing federation, the Organización Mexicana De Automovilismo Internacional (Omdai), while the FIA is still carrying out an investigation into the incident.On Tuesday the Omdai issued a statement, not ratified by the FIA, that claimed the marshals should have been “clearly visible” to Lawson and that the New Zealander “did not interrupt his [driving] line despite the obvious presence of marshals on the track”.On Friday the FIA responded by dismissing the assertion. “Having analysed the telemetry from the incident, we can confirm that the driver of Car #30, Liam Lawson, slowed appropriately and reacted correctly to the double yellow flags displayed in the area, braking earlier than in other laps and passing significantly slower than racing speed into Turn 1
Your Guardian sport weekend: England v Australia x2, Women’s World Cup final and more
An epic World Series returns to Toronto for Game 6 with the Blue Jays one win away from their first championship since 1993. We’ll bring you all the action live.England are 2-0 down in the series but can salvage pride in Wellington. James Wallace and Tanya Aldred will be at the OBO helm, while Simon Burnton reports from Sky Stadium.Billy Munday will bring you all the news and set the scene for the day’s football, which includes seven matches in the Premier League as well as the FA Cup first round
The Next wave: how the clothing retailer spread its wings and made sales surge
Champagne body attempts to buck Delevingne sisters’ marketing fizz
‘The money machine is misfiring’: City blames Brexit for UK’s £20bn productivity headache
Tinned tuna maker Princes floats at nearly £1.2bn in boost for London
Starbucks workers hold strike vote amid anger over pay and conditions
UK house price growth slows as buyers ‘sit on sidelines’ before budget