Westminster hopeful Andy Burnham has been called a hypocrite after it was revealed he has been renting out a London flat that was partly funded by his MP’s expenses.
Labour’s Makerfield by-election candidate bought the two-bedroom Kennington property in 2005 and since then its value has doubled to £480,000.
Mr Burnham – who has often lamented young people’s inability to get on the housing ladder – used taxpayers’ cash to pay his mortgage interest on the property using his MP expenses – an allowance that was scrapped following the 2009 expenses crisis.
He was branded a hypocrite by the Tories. Kevin Hollinrake, the Conservative Party chairman, told The Sun on Sunday: ‘The self-styled King of the North, it turns out, has kept a rather comfortable foothold south of the river.
Bought thanks to expenses, doubled in value, rented out for profit – despite cries of unfairness against the landlord class he is a part of. There is a certain whiff of hypocrisy.’
In 2015, it was revealed that the then shadow health secretary was renting out the former council flat while charging taxpayers around £17,000 a year to rent a different flat nearby.
While it was within the rules, Mr Burnham was accused of showing a ‘lack of judgement’. His spokesman declined to comment.
Over the weekend, Mr Burnham was plunged into a fresh row over his Brexit beliefs after it was revealed the Government is pushing for Britain to be readmitted to a new version of the EU single market.
Westminster hopeful Andy Burnham (pictured) has been called a hypocrite after it was revealed he has been renting out a London flat that was partly funded by his MP’s expenses
Labour’s Makerfield by-election candidate bought the two-bedroom Kennington property in 2005 and since then its value has doubled to £480,000
The Manchester mayor – a Remain supporter trying to win a by-election in pro-Brexit Makerfield – was challenged to say if he would continue with his stance if he replaced Sir Keir Starmer as Labour leader and Prime Minister.
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Mr Burnham sought to dodge the Brexit issue last week by saying there was a ‘long-term’ case for rejoining the EU but he wouldn’t be making it ‘in this by-election’.
But on Saturday night Tory trade spokesman Andrew Griffith called on him to come clean on what he would propose to Brussels. Mr Griffith said: ‘Whether Burnham likes it or not, Brexit is the elephant in the room in this by-election.
‘On something as profound as to whether the Parliament he wants to be elected to should decide our own laws rather than hand them to Brussels, he must get off the fence. No supposed “straight talker” can fudge this for the next four weeks.’
The spat broke out after it was revealed Michael Ellam, Britain’s chief negotiator in ‘reset’ talks with the EU, had offered to align the UK with EU regulations to allow free trade in goods with the bloc.
The move, proposed in the next phase of the Government’s Brexit reset, emerged last week after the Prime Minister vowed ‘this Labour Government will be defined by rebuilding our relationship with Europe, by putting Britain at the heart of Europe’.
Brussels is understood to have responded by suggesting the UK join the customs union or allow the return of freedom of movement – both explicitly ruled out in Labour’s 2024 General Election manifesto.
