Furious GB News guest urges Starmer to 'show some backbone' in brutal takedown

Prime Minister Keir Starmer was dealt yet another major blow as the Conservative Party Chairman, Kevin Hollinrake, appeared on GB News with a scathing rant about the UK leader's response to Chancellor Rachel Reeves' rent licence scandal. The Chairman joined presenters Stephen Dixon and Ellie Costello after Reeves came under fire for renting out her property last year without a license. The details emerged after the Chancellor referred herself to the independent ethics adviser, claiming "she had not been made aware of the licensing requirement", after she put her Dulwich home on the rental market.

After she also penned an apology in her letter to the Prime Minister about the "inadvertent error," Starmer said he was happy the "matter can be drawn to a close" after consulting his independent ethics adviser, who has decided not to launch an investigation. This decision sparked major backlash within the Opposition as Hollinrake fumed: "The Prime Minister needs to show some backbone and instruct, whoever he thinks is most appropriate, to carry out a full investigation."

Hollinrake continued: "Rachel Reeves' problem here is that her story has changed, and of course, Rachel Reeves in the past has called for others to resign when they've broken the law or their story has changed.

"On Wednesday, she said she didn't know she needed a licence, which is not getting one is a criminal offence. If it was an honest mistake and she didn't know, then the next day, she emails saying 'Actually, we did know, we just didn't make sure it happened.'"

"There are real questions to answer here for Rachel Reeves. Why didn't she give a full account of the situation on Wednesday (October 29)? She now changed her story on that, so we think it's only right that an independent person carries out a full investigation ... so that we get the transparency he's [Sir Keir] always promised us when he's been speaking about these issues in the past."

In her initial letter to Sir Keir, Reeves stated that "regrettably," she was not aware that a licence was required to rent out her Southwark home after moving into Downing Street last year.

Reeves wrote: "This was an inadvertent mistake. As soon as it was brought to my attention, we took immediate action and have applied for the licence. I sincerely apologise for this error and I would be happy to answer any questions you may have."

However, in a second letter published on Thursday (October 30), the Chancellor backtracked as he penned an update for the Prime minister and admitted the letting agency and her husband had found correspondence from July last year in which they discussed the need for a rental licence.

She wrote: "The letting agent said to my husband that a Selective Licence would be required and agreed that the agency would apply for the licence on our behalf."

Nevertheless, in his response to her letter, Sir Keir stated that the public expected "the highest standards" and confirmed that he had consulted with Sir Laurie Magnus, the ethics adviser whose findings had previously led to the downfall of two ministers.

He added that Sir Laurie had judged that further investigation was not necessary, given Reeves' swift action and apology.

In the wake of the scandal, Gareth Martin, owner of lReeve's letting agents, Harvey and Wheeles, said the company's previous property manager had offered to apply for a "selective" rental licence on behalf of their client and admitted fault, as this never happened, due to the manager resigning before the tenancy began.

He added: "We deeply regret the issue caused to our clients as they would have been under the impression that a licence had been applied for."