Labour’s biggest donor Lord Waheed Alli evicted a young family from his rented north London townhouse before relisting the property for over £1,000 a month more in rent, The i Paper can reveal.
The family-of-five were told they would have to leave their home of four years when their tenancy expired after being handed a section 21 “no fault” eviction notice in June.
Just days later, the five-bedroom Islington property was relisted for £6,000 a month – a 25 per cent rise on the £4,800 the family had been paying – before being lowered to £5,850 a month, a process that will outlawed by Labour next year.
Lord Alli, who has donated hundreds of thousands of pounds to Labour, had a security pass to Downing Street last year despite not having an official government role. Number 10 said at the time that the pass had only been given “temporarily”.
New tenants are understood to have moved into his property a few days after the family departed last month, paying rent of £5,700.
Labour’s Renters’ Rights Bill, which will become law next year, will outlaw “no fault” evictions and, in many cases, ban landlords from relisting a property at a higher price for at least six months after evicted tenants have moved out.
Rushanara Ali was forced to resign as the Government’s homelessness minister last month after The i Paper revealed she had ejected four tenants out of her east London townhouse before relisting the property for £700 a month more in rent.
It comes as the Government – which has vowed to champion renters’ rights and create a fairer housing market – has suffered a series of damaging revelations over its MPs’ property affairs, including the resignation of Angela Rayner as deputy PM for underpaying stamp duty by £40,000 on a flat in Hove.
It also comes following the sacking of Peter Mandelson as Britain’s ambassador to the US over his friendship with convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, which has plunged Sir Keir Starmer’s leadership into crisis.
Lord Alli’s former tenants – a family with young children – told The i Paper that when they saw the property had been relisted, they pleaded with the property’s managing agent to negotiate their rent and offered to meet the increased asking price, but were told no.
The father of the family, who is in his 40s and voted for Labour, said: “We saw that our house had been relisted for rent at more than £1,000 a month than we were paying. We had been paying £4,800 a month, and Lord Alli had relisted it for £5,850 a month.
Lord Alli’s Islington townhouse was relisted for £1,050 a month more after the young family were evicted (Photo: Tom Pilston)“We have children who were settled in local schools in Islington and coming up for their 11+ exams this autumn, so we wanted to avoid the disruption if we could.
“We asked if there was any chance that we could even just stay an extra month so the kids wouldn’t be disrupted in September, and we could get through exams, but it was a no.”
Speaking on Lord Alli’s position as a Labour peer and major donor, the father added: “The hypocrisy just feels like too much, and we felt we had to speak out. It’s such poor behaviour. I voted Labour and I’m just incredibly disappointed.”
The property was managed on Lord Alli’s behalf by a managing estate agent, who took the decision to serve the eviction notice around two months before the tenancy agreement was due to expire. Sources close to Lord Alli said he was not involved in the decision-making on this.
Land Registry records show that Lord Alli has owned the Islington townhouse since the 1990s and does not have a mortgage on the property, which is believed to be worth around £3 million.
Lord Alli has owned the north London property since the 1990s (Photo: Getty Images/Tom Pilston)The eviction notice issued to the family stated “your landlord requires possession of your home” and told them: “If you do not leave your home by the date given, your landlord may apply to the court for an order under Section 21 (1) or (4) of the Housing Act 1988 requiring you to give up possession”.
The Renters’ Rights Bill will ban section 21 “no fault” evictions completely and only allow landlords to relist their properties for a higher price within six months after an eviction if tenants were told to leave due to rent arrears or anti-social behaviour.
Fixed-term tenancies will also be banned under the Bill, with tenants being moved onto rolling contracts, which can only be ended with notice under certain circumstances, such as rent arrears.
The family moved out of their home on 27 August. The i Paper visited the property and confirmed new tenants had moved in last week.
Lord Alli, a former investment banker, has donated more than £500,000 to Labour over the past 20 years.
Last year, he found himself at the centre of Labour’s freebies row after it was revealed he had donated thousands of pounds’ worth of luxury clothes to senior politicians, including Sir Keir Starmer and his wife.
Lord Alli, pictured with Cherie Blair (left) and Bob Geldof (right) was first appointed to the Lords by Tony Blair in 1998 (Photos: Getty Images)Conservative Party chairman Kevin Hollinrake said Lord Alli’s actions involving his London townhouse were “yet another example of rank hypocrisy whereby a Labour peer is engaging in the very practices his party’s legislation seeks to prevent.”
James Cleverly, the Tories’ shadow housing secretary, said: “This is another example of Labour saying one thing and doing another.”
Cleverly warned that “two ministers have already had to resign” because of what he called “Labour’s housing hypocrisy.”
He claimed Labour plans to “kill the private rental market, hike up property taxes, and they’re looking at ramping up inheritance tax on family homes,” he added.
“If Starmer doesn’t get a grip of this, we will see just how weak he is.”
Ben Twomey, Chief Executive of Generation Rent, a lobby group that campaigns on behalf of private renters, described Alli’s actions as “indefensible” and “outrageous” given his proximity to the Government.
Twomey added: “Lord Alli has shown real generosity to his own party as a major donor, yet evicting families and using practices that are about to be banned shows that same generosity doesn’t extend to his tenants.”
Lord Alli pictured with former TV presenter June Sarpong at an event celebrating her MBE in the House of Lords in 2007 (Photo: Dave M. Benett/Getty Images)Last year, Starmer defended borrowing an £18m penthouse flat owned by Lord Alli during the 2024 general election campaign.
Among his other political donations, Lord Alli also gifted Angela Rayner a stay in his New York home for New Year’s Eve and gave her £2,230 worth of clothing.
No rules were broken, and Lord Alli has always maintained that he expects nothing in return for his donations.
The landlord peer was also found to have breached the House of Lords Code of Conduct for failing to properly register his interests in a series of businesses and a charitable foundation last October.
Representatives of Lord Alli declined to comment.
Downing Street declined to comment, saying Lord Alli’s property affairs were a “personal” matter.
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG), declined to comment on Lord Alli’s case, but said the Renters’ Rights Bill “will level the playing field between landlords and tenants”.
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