Millionaire Labour donor Lord Alli evicted a young family from one of his properties before relisting the property for more than £1,000-a-month extra rent, it was alleged today.
Lord Waheed Alli, who has donated more than £500,000 to Labour over the past two decades, had let the five-bed north London townhouse to the couple and their children for the past four years.
But in June they were handed a section 21 ‘no-fault’ eviction notice requiring them to vacate the property when their tenancy expired, the i Paper reported.
Today they told of their shock at seeing the Georgian house relisted for £6,000 a month just days later – a 25 per cent rise on the £4,800 the family had been paying.
Labour has committed to stop landlords acting in that way, and today the ex-tenant – himself a Labour voter – accused Lord Alli of hypocrisy, saying he was ‘incredibly disappointed’ with the party.
Meanwhile Sir James Cleverly, the Tories’ shadow Housing Secretary, said it was ‘another example of Labour saying one thing and doing another’.
The move comes in spite of Labour’s Renters’ Rights Bill which is designed to outlaw ‘no-fault’ evictions.
In addition in many cases it will ban landlords from relisting a property at a higher price for at least six months after evicted tenants have moved out.
A family renting a £3million north London townhouse from millionaire Labour donor Lord Waheed Alli (pictured) say they were served a ‘no fault’ eviction notice before the property was relisted for 25 per cent higher rent
The five-bed house in Islington was described as ‘truly stunning, bright, spacious and unique period home’ when the estate agents advertised it to new tenants for £6,000-a-month
It comes after Angela Rayner resigned as housing secretary and Deputy Prime Minister last week for underpaying stamp duty on a flat in Hove by £40,000.
Meanwhile Rushanara Ali quit as homelessness minister last month amid claims she ejected four tenants from her east London townhouse before putting it back on the market for £700 a month more.
The Government was last year dogged by questions about Lord Alli’s closeness to Sir Keir Starmer, who accepted freebies worth tens of thousands of pounds, and why he was issued with a security pass to Downing Street.
The PM also used the Labour peer’s £18million penthouse flat in Covent Garden, central London, including living there with his family during the election.
But sources close to the peer told the i paper he had not been involved in the eviction decision, which they said was made by a managing estate agent.
Lord Alli’s spokesman told the Daily Mail he had ‘never managed’ the property and said the ‘replacing’ of the tenants was ‘not about money’.
The house – near London’s Almeida Theatre and worth around £3million – was advertised as a ‘truly stunning, bright, spacious and unique period home, set within an unbeatable, highly sought after Islington location’.
Records show it has been owned by Lord Alli – a former investment banker appointed to the Lords by Tony Blair – since the 1990s.
The father of the family, aged in his forties, told the i paper: ‘We saw that our house had been relisted for rent at more than £1,000 a month than we were paying.
Lord Alli, pictured, has been accused of hypocrisy by the father of the allegedly evicted family – Labour plans to outlaw ‘no fault’ evictions and give tenants more rights
Lord Alli has funded at least seven Labour Cabinet ministers with donations totalling £314,147 over the past 20 years, including £155,122 to Sir Keir Starmer since 2020
‘We had been paying £4,800 a month, and Lord Alli had relisted it for £5,850 a month.’
He said they pleaded with the managing agent to negotiate their rent and offered to meet the increased asking price, but were told no.
‘We have children who were settled in local schools in Islington and coming up for their 11-plus exams this autumn, so we wanted to avoid the disruption if we could,’ he added.
‘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.’
They finally moved out last month.
Speaking about Lord Alli’s status as a major Labour donor the ex-tenant 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 house was originally relisted for £6,000 a month, but new tenants now living at the property are understood to be paying £5,700-a-month in rent.
Sir Keir defended using a house owned by Lord Alli for a video urging people to work from home during the Covid pandemic
Labour’s Renters’ Rights Bill will ban section 21 ‘no-fault’ evictions completely.
Landlords will only be allowed 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 antisocial behaviour.
Fixed-term tenancies will also be banned under the law, with tenants being moved onto rolling contracts, which can only be ended with notice under certain circumstances, such as rent arrears.
Conservative Party chairman Kevin Hollinrake said Alli’s actions involving his London townhouse were ‘yet another example of rank hypocrisy whereby a Labour peer is engaging in the very practises his party’s legislation seeks to prevent’.
Meanwhile Sir James Cleverly warned that Labour plans would ‘kill the private rental market’.
Ben Twomey, chief executive of Generation Rent, which campaigns on behalf of private renters, said: ‘Lord Alli has shown real generosity to his own party as a major donor, yet evicting families and using practises that are about to be banned shows that same generosity doesn’t extend to his tenants.’
A spokesperson for Lord Alli said: ‘Lord Alli is not a commercial landlord and he doesn’t manage – and has never managed – this property.
‘This is his former home where he no longer lives and where one tenant was replaced with another for less money than the former tenant offered and at an amount lower than the market price.
‘Clearly this was not about money.’
Figures last year revealed that Lord Alli had funded at least seven Labour Cabinet ministers with donations totalling £314,147 over the past 20 years.
He also donated thousands of pounds’ worth of suits and glasses to the PM and allowed Ms Rayner to stay in his plush New York apartment while on holiday.
The Labour peer even bankrolled a 40th birthday bash for Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson.
His Downing Street security pass was later handed back, but Labour politicians have insisted they did nothing wrong in accepting donations and that Lord Alli asked for nothing in return.
Downing Street declined to comment to the paper, saying Alli’s property affairs were a ‘personal’ matter.
Labour also declined to comment.
