BRITAIN’S HOMELESSNESS MINSTER has resigned after reports she hiked rent on a property she owns just weeks after the previous tenants’ contract ended.

The UK is expected to introduce tighter rental laws soon, which would stop landlords that evict tenants to sell their property from re-listing the home for six months. It would also outlaw fixed-term tenancies and enforce four-month notice to leave periods.

The i Newspaper reported this morning that Rushanara Ali, a junior minister at the UK’s Department of Housing, had not renewed her tenants’ lease in November last year and then re-listed the property and hiked the rent by over €800 (£700) just weeks later.

A spokesperson asserted that the Labour MP, who has represented Bethnal Green in London since 2010, had acted within the law at all times. Opposition MPs had accused Ali of hypocrisy.

In a letter to the UK’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer this evening, Ali resigned. She insisted to the Labour leader that she complied with rental laws “at all times”, but claimed that continuing in her role would be a “distraction” to the government.

Starmer has thanked Ali for her work. He said she would continue to support the government from the backbenches and represent her voters. .

With reporting by Press Association