Lucy Powell, the Labour MP currently tipped as favourite to become the party’s deputy leader, says: “To be totally clear, I’m not a landlord.”

She makes the comment in the homelessness support magazine The Big Issue.

Powell records property income under Parliamentary rules which say MPs must make an entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests, if there is an annual income of over £10,000.

She has been making such an entry for many years but has previously been quoted as saying she earns less than £10,000, from a lodger, and makes the entry in the register in the interests of transparency.

In the interview in The Big Issue, Powell adds: “I don’t have a rental property in any shape or form. I have a lodger living with me. I declare it as though it is because I think that’s important for transparency. I share my own flat with another MP. That’s there for public record and, by the way, in doing so, I save the public purse. I pay for all of that myself.”

Powell goes on to make a stout defence of the Renters Rights Bill, shortly expected to become law, saying: “Where you’ve got large scale landlords who are not providing good quality accommodation, or who are hiking up rents, or issuing no-fault evictions just to put the rent up, we’ve got to take that to task.”

However, she does acknowledge that some landlords “have no choice” but to let out their properties, noting that some people in her own constituency cannot sell their homes and thus become accidental landlords. 

Instead she says the Bill is “about taking on bad landlords and making it more affordable for the increasing number of people who need to live in the private rented sector, and getting rid of hidden charges. We’re going to have more and more people living in the private rental sector. It’s absolutely right that we bring in the Renters Rights Bill and we continue to look at these issues, because it’s about security, affordability, decent standards and dignity.”

The interview covers a range of other topics, including Powell’s views on homelessness and the rise of Reform UK. 

You can read the full interview here: https://www.bigissue.com/news/politics/lucy-powell-labour-deputy-leader-interview/