Staff reporter, Daily Dawn, Dawn TV report
London: UK Homeless Minister Roshan Ara Ali has resigned from her post after allegations of evicting tenants and raising rents by hundreds of pounds.
Roshan Ara Ali, a junior minister in the Ministry of Housing, wrote in her letter to Prime Minister Keir Starmer that she has always followed all legal requirements, but she does not want her personal affairs to hinder the important and determined work of the government.
Roshan Ara Ali’s resignation is a blow to Keir Starmer’s Labour government.
Roshan Ara Ali is the fourth Labour minister to resign under pressure. Before her, the Minister for Transport, the Minister for Anti-Corruption and a junior Health Minister resigned for different reasons.
Opposition Conservative Party chairman Kevin Hollenrick said: “Keir Starmer promised a government of honesty and principle, but instead he presided over a government of hypocrisy and self-indulgence.”
According to the iPaper newspaper, Rosh Ara Ali, who has previously spoken out against tenant exploitation and unreasonable rent increases, evicted four tenants from her four-bedroom house in East London last year because the property was up for sale.
The report added that just weeks later, the property, which was listed for £3,300 a month, was given a £700 rent increase after no buyers were found and later let at a higher rent.
The termination of tenancy agreements is considered a major cause of homelessness in the UK and the government is preparing a tenants’ rights bill that would ban landlords from ‘relisting’ properties at a higher rent within six months of an eviction.
“I want to make it clear that I have followed all relevant legal requirements at all times. I believe that I have taken my responsibilities and duties seriously and the facts show this,” Roshan Ara said in her letter to the Prime Minister.
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