Labour Party leader Keir Starmer has informed Rachel Reeves that she will not face any further repercussions for her unintentional failure to obtain a rental license. While expressing regret that initial emails regarding the matter were not shared with him, Starmer has decided to take no additional action against Reeves.

Reeves had previously acknowledged breaching local housing regulations by neglecting to secure a “selective” rental license for her family property. She disclosed emails exchanged between her husband and the letting agency, confirming that the agency had agreed to apply for the license. Despite this, Reeves took full responsibility for the oversight and expressed her apologies to the Prime Minister.

In a letter to Starmer, Reeves explained that the letting agency and her husband had correspondence confirming that the license application was discussed but not pursued due to staffing changes at the agency. She admitted her responsibility for ensuring the license was obtained and apologized for not bringing this information to Starmer’s attention sooner.

The Prime Minister, after reviewing the situation, deemed it an inadvertent failure to obtain the necessary license and accepted Reeves’s apology. The Independent Adviser on Ministerial Standards concurred with this assessment, leading to the decision that no further action was required.

Sir Laurie Magnus, the Prime Minister’s independent standards adviser, confirmed that Reeves’s error was unintentional and found no evidence of malicious intent in her conflicting statements about the license requirement awareness. He emphasized that despite some confusion caused by successive information disclosures, there was no indication of bad faith.

Following consultations with his ethics adviser, Starmer expressed satisfaction that the issue could be resolved without launching a formal probe. Downing Street reiterated its confidence in Reeves, assuring that she would proceed with delivering the Budget on November 26 as planned.