Robert Jenrick: Police assess complaint over minister who approved Tory donor’s £1bn housing scheme

Former Labour minister Andrew Adonis asks police to consider ‘breach of the law’

The Metropolitan Police have confirmed they are “assessing” an allegation involving the housing secretary, Robert Jenrick, and his decision to green-light a controversial £1bn east London development.

Mr Jenrick has admitted “unlawfully” approving the 1,500-home development on London’s Isle of Dogs at the start of this year.

He gave the project an eleventh-hour reprieve after it was rejected by the local council and the independent Planning Inspectorate.

The U-turn came just a day before Tower Hamlets Council approved a new rate for its Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) – a move that would have added a price tag of between £30m and £50m to the scheme.

A Met spokesperson told HuffPost UK: “The Metropolitan Police received an allegation on 27 May – the details of this are currently being assessed by officers from the special enquiry team.”

The development is based at the former Westferry Printworks site in east London.

The land is owned by Northern & Shell, which is in turn owned by Richard Desmond, the ex-owner of the Daily Express and Sunday Express and a former Tory donor.

Mr Jenrick has agreed that the planning permission should be quashed and the scheme’s future decided by a different minister.

Last week he said the application had been decided “on its merits” and done “without any actual bias”.

He added: “But clearly the way that the process was run gave rise to some concerns and so that’s why we’ve chosen to quash the decision.”

It is not clear what the allegation is.

Andrew Adonis, the peer and former Labour minister, has posted on Twitter that he has asked the Met to consider a “breach of the law”.