The Rushanara Ali scandal exposes Starmer’s double standards on sleaze

The prime minister was elected on a pledge to end the abuse of power by Boris Johnson and the Tories – but his feeble response to the hypocrisy of his homelessness minister suggests he has failed to do so, says Simon Walters

One of the reasons Keir Starmer won a landslide at the last election was voters’ repulsion at the endless sleaze and hypocrisy of the last Tory government. Starmer tore into Boris Johnson time and again over his abuse of power as prime minister and refusal to deal firmly with misconduct by his own ministers.

That would all end when Starmer entered No 10, we were told. And we believed him.

Starmer may be dull, he may have no great vision and precious few clear policies, we thought. But he was an honest and decent man who would drain the swamp that Westminster had become under the Tories.

Addressing parliament in 2021 at the height of the so-called “Wallpapergate” affair, when Johnson was caught taking secret loans to refurbish his Downing Street flat, Starmer called the then prime minister “Major Sleaze”. Labour MPs cheered as their leader seized the moral high ground, accusing the Conservatives of being “mired in sleaze, cronyism and scandal”.

If he won power, he would have no truck with such corrupt antics, he said.

Barely a year into Starmer’s administration, it is depressingly clear that little has changed. We have already had the scandal of his wife taking thousands of pounds worth of free clothes from Labour donor Waheed Alli, while the prime minister himself accepted free football tickets, clothes and even spectacles.

We have even had a Labour MP forced to resign after being caught punching a constituent outside a pub.

But it has reached a new low with the resignation of the homelessness minister, Rushanara Ali.

The gross double standards that led to her exit from the government – forcing out tenants from a property she owned before whacking up the rent by £700 a month and seeking new tenants when new legislation she is responsible for would outlaw such action – are bad enough. The arrogant manner of her departure – and Starmer’s refusal to condemn her in clear terms – is worse.

She blithely declares she had “at all times” followed “all legal requirements” and had taken her responsibilities “seriously”. She was resigning to avoid “being a distraction from the ambitious work of the government”. No mention of an apology.

Judging from his ringing denunciation of Johnson, you might imagine Starmer would send Ali packing with a stern rebuke. You would be wrong.

From a cursory look at his formal reply to her, you might think Ali was being promoted – not punished. The prime minister thanks her for her “diligent work” at her department, saying it will have a “lasting impact”. How mistaken he is.

The only impact Ali’s departure from Starmer’s government will have is as a reminder to the electorate that when it comes to sleaze, Labour’s approach appears little different to their Conservative predecessors. As the saying goes: “Do as we say, not as we do.”