LABOUR’S landlord homelessness minister was forced to resign on Thursday evening after it emerged that she had evicted tenants before hiking the rent by £700 a month.

Rushanara Ali, MP for Bethnal Green and Stepney, insisted that she had followed “all legal requirements” in a letter to Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer.

“However, it is clear that continuing in my role will be a distraction from the ambitious work of the government,” she said.

“I have therefore decided to resign from my ministerial position.”

Ms Ali stepped down after the i newspaper reported that she had informed four tenants in her east London flat that their lease would not be renewed, as she intended to sell the property.

They were given four months’ notice to vacate. But just weeks after their tenancy ended, the property was re-listed with the rent increased from £3,300 to £4,000 a month.

The homelessness minister was a proponent of Labour’s Renters Rights Bill, but under the law, which takes effect next year, her actions would have been prohibited.

The legislation will ban landlords from re-listing a property at a higher rent for at least six months if they end a tenancy claiming they intend to sell.

According to the government’s own statistics, the leading cause of homelessness is the loss of a private rented tenancy. 

Generation Rent chief executive Ben Twomey said: “It is bad enough when any landlord turfs out their tenant to hike up the rent, or tries their luck with unfair claims on the deposit, but the minister responsible for homelessness knows only too well about the harm caused by this behaviour.”

Following Ms Ali’s resignation, London Renters Union insisted that she should step down as an MP as well.

In a post on X, the campaign group wrote: “Tenants deserve representatives at every level of government who will tackle the housing crisis, not those who benefit from it.

“Landlords out of Parliament!”

Sir Keir thanked Ms Ali for her “diligent work” at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, saying it would have “a lasting impact.”

The prime minister has lost 10 members of his government since Labour won the election last July — higher than predecessors Rishi Sunak, nine, Boris Johnson, six, and Theresa May, three, over the equivalent period of their premiership.

Liz Truss’s premiership lasted only a month and a half, during which there were three departures.