Kemi Badenoch said she “rolled my eyes” when she heard Sarah Pochin’s comments about black faces on TV advertising.

Speaking on LBC the Tory leader said “they’re very silly people and they don’t think through what they say.”

“I do actually, as it happens, think ethnic minorities are over represented in advertising. But why it happens is the interesting thing, everybody is trying to meet a target. If one person is doing it it works but if everyone does it they’re overcompensating. We should be talking about making sure that advertising standards are fit for purpose.

“Instead, saying that it makes you sick or mad or whatever it was, that offends people. How did she think my children would feel hearing that?

“We need to make sure as politicians we speak responsibly, even when we can see something that’s not working quite well we need to make sure that the language we use is fit for purpose.”

Kemi Badenoch has accused Rachel Reeves of “astonishing hypocrisy” over her housing licence.

Speaking on an LBC phone in show, the Tory leader blasted: “It’s been fascinating watching Labour lurch from one place to another. Let’s remember, Keir Starmer said law makers shouldn’t be law breakers, and he was very happy to chase every fixed penalty notice that occurred under the Conservatives.

“What Rachel Reeves looks like she’s done is a criminal offence. The Housing Act the Labour brought in in 2004, that says under these regulations if you’ve not followed the council guidelines you’re creating a criminal offence. And not just that, Rachel Reeves tweeted 10 days ago saying these were fantastic regulations that she wants to see in her constituency and extended. And then it turns out that it hasn’t applied to her.

“It’s astonishing hypocrisy.”

The Tories have published a list of five detailed and crucial questions the Chancellor must answer:

1. The Chancellor committed a criminal offence under Section 95 the Housing Act 2004, hasn’t she?

2. On Wednesday, the Chancellor said she was not aware a selective license was required, now it appears her husband was aware. Did she lie to the PM or Independent Adviser?

3. Angela Rayner was sacked for ‘failure to settle affairs appropriately deemed the responsibility of the individual in question, and the issue only coming to light following public scrutiny’. How is this different?

4. Why did the Prime Minister conclude the investigation early and did the Independent Adviser on Ministerial Standards request any evidence, which the Prime Minister then based his conclusion on?

5. The Chancellor and her husband have committed a criminal offence, what does her inability to follow the rules say about her as an individual and her suitability to be Chancellor?

Rachel Reeves has said she accepts “it was our responsibility to secure the licence” for renting her family home in a letter to the Prime Minister.

The lettings agency involved in the Chancellor’s rental arrangements insisted it had also told her she needed a licence – this is despite Ms Reeves insisting on Wednesday that she was not aware of the requirement.

Read the full story here

A Conservative Party spokesperson:

“Last night Rachel Reeves said “she had not been made aware of the licensing requirement”. Today, we find out that Reeves was alerted to the need for a licence in writing by the estate agents.

“Having been caught out, the Chancellor is now trying to make the estate agents take the blame, but Reeves never followed up with them to ensure that the licence had been applied for, or checked if the licence had been granted.

“Regardless, under the law, Reeves and her husband are responsible for ensuring the licence is granted.

“With more information coming to light every few hours, the Prime Minister needs to grow a backbone and start a proper investigation.”

Alongside the emails between the letting agents and Ms Reeves’ husband, Downing Street has also published a further letter sent from the Chancellor to Sir Keir today.

In it, she says: “Today the letting agency and my husband have found correspondence confirming that on 17th July 2024 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. They have also confirmed today they did not take the application forward, in part due to a member of staff leaving the organisation. Nevertheless, as I said yesterday, I accept it was our responsibility to secure the licence. I also take responsibility for not finding this information yesterday and bringing it to your attention.

“As I said to you today, I am sorry about this matter and accept full responsibility for it.”

Downing Street has finally published the emails, which do appear to confirm the story that Ms Reeves’s letting agents offered to sort the licence on behalf of the Chancellor, but then failed to do so.

An email from the letting agent to Ms Reeves’ husband on August 13 last year read: “I will do the Selective Licence once the new tenant moves in as I wont need to do this just yet.

“At the moment as we are only applying for a council licence we do not need anything from [redacted] so we should be all good.”

This was in response to an email from Ms Reeves’ husband asking the letting agent: “Yes please, do go ahead and arrange the PAT test and the Selective Licence.”

Business Secretary Peter Kyle said he had “complete confidence” in Rachel Reeves.

He told the PA news agency: “She has one of the greatest work ethics of anyone I’ve come across.

“She is so focused on her role as one of the big public servants of our time.

“She is focused on not just fixing the mess that she inherited as Chancellor from the previous administration, she is working day and night to make sure we can get our economy where it needs to be, so it’s creating the jobs and the wealth and economic growth that we need going into the future.”

Rachel Reeves’s estate agent has apologised to her for an “oversight” after they did not apply fora licence on her behalf despite offering to do so.

Read the full story here

The Tories have published a new brutal attack video highlighting Labour’s hypocrisy on standards.

They say: “A lawbreaker should not be a lawmaker – their words not ours.”

Harvey Wheeler, the estate agents used by Rachel Reeves to rent out her property in south London, has apologised to her for an “oversight” after they did not apply for a licence on her behalf, having offered to do so.

Sounds like the emails may prove that Ms Reeves’ husband asked them to do this and they then failed to.

Gareth Martin, owner of Harvey Wheeler, said: “We alert all our clients to the need for a licence. In an effort to be helpful our previous property manager offered to apply for a licence on these clients’ behalf, as shown in the correspondence. That property manager suddenly resigned on the Friday before the tenancy began on the following Monday.

“Unfortunately, the lack of application was not picked up by us as we do not normally apply for licences on behalf of our clients; the onus is on them to apply. We have apologised to the owners for this oversight.

“At the time the tenancy began, all the relevant certificates were in place and if the licence had been applied for, we have no doubt it would have been granted.

“Our clients would have been under the impression that a licence had been applied for. Although it is not our responsibility to apply, we did offer to help with this.

“We deeply regret the issue caused to our clients as they would have been under the impression that a licence had been applied for.”

Andrew Neil posts on X: “So Reeves had campaigned for a rental licensing scheme in opposition but didn’t think she needed one herself, even though rules in Southwark are clearly displayed on the council’s website.”

Local authorities in England and Wales have the power to introduce a licensing scheme covering all privately rented properties in a certain area.

It is designed to safeguard tenants against landlords letting out poorly-maintained properties, but it also might be introduced because of concerns about persistent anti-social behaviour problems in rental homes.

If a private landlord wants to rent out a property in that designated area then they have to apply to obtain a licence.

Local authorities must contact people in the area to make them aware if there are plans to introduce the scheme, and they should display information about it on their website.

But it is the landlord’s responsibility to apply for a licence if they need one, even if they are advised by a letting agent to manage their property.

It’s clear that Downing Street believe these emails, set to be made public in the coming hours, will help Ms Reeves.

Both the act of publishing them, and the insistence that Sir Keir has ‘full confidence’ in the Chancellor point to that belief.

However the contents of the emails will be poured over, and questions will be asked about why the PM’s ethics advisor didn’t dig them up himself before concluding last night that a sleaze probe wasn’t necessary.

The emails set to be published this evening are between Rachel Revees’s husband, Nick Joicey, and the south London letting agents.

Mr Joicey is a very senior civil servant, second in command at the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. At the moment he is on secondment to the Blavatnik School of Government.

He was briefly Director General of the Cabinet Office’s Economic and Domestic Secretariat.

He previously worked as private secretary and speech writer to United Kingdom Chancellor Gordon Brown, as a journalist at The Observer newspaper.

The SNP leader in Westminster Stephen Flynn has raised a key question.

Taking to X, Mr Flynn asked: “Why did the ethics advisor not see these emails last night?”

As per the live blog update at 16:29, Sir Keir’s ethics chief appeared to dismiss the need for a probe into Reeves out of hand, telling the PM her apology was sufficient.

Kemi Badenoch has responded to this afternoon’s development.

The Tory leader blasts: “This whole thing stinks.

“The Prime Minister needs to stop trying to cover this up, order a full investigation and, if Reeves has broken the law, grow a backbone and sack her!”

Responding to this afternoon’s developments, Tory MP Matt Vickers says: “This Labour government is riddled with scandal and chaos.

“The only standards Starmer has enforced are double standards.”

The Liberal Democrat opposition group on Southwark council, the London borough in which Ms Reeves owns her house, has now written to the Labour administration demanding action.

They branded the Chancellor’s actions “hypocritical”, highlighting that she has championed selective licensing in her Leeds constituency while failing to comply with the rules in Southwark.

They are also demanding the council investigate whether the property met all requirements during the unlicensed period, and pursue the full enforcement measures available – which could include an unlimited fine or requiring the return of rent to tenants.

Sir Keir’s independent ethics adviser, Sir Laurie Magnus, dismissed the need for a sleaze probe out of hand yesterday evening.

In an exchange of letters between the PM and Chancellor, Sir Keir claimed that Sir Laurie had judged that further investigation was not necessary given Reeves’s swift action and apology.

Sir Keir said he was happy the “matter can be drawn to a close”.

Southwark council has implied Ms Reeves will escape any legal action following the revelation she was letting her home out without the relevant license.

The London borough council said anyone renting out a property has 21 days after being informed they do not have the appropriate license to apply for one.

Only failing to do this, or discovery that the home is unsafe for habitation, would result in any formal disciplinary process.

The spokesman said: “When we become aware of an unlicensed property, we issue a warning letter advising the landlord that they have 21 days to apply for a license – enforcement action such as fines are reserved for those who do not apply within that time or where a property is found to be in an unsafe condition.

“We cannot comment on individual cases.”

It’s understood that the emails, brought to light inside No10 earlier this afternoon, will be published later today.

No10 sources are briefing that they believe they will exonerate Ms Reeves.