Conservative London Assembly Member Lord Shaun Bailey has accused Labour of creating a toxic environment for people in public life after it was revealed he and Rachel Reeves both rent out their houses.

Speaking on GB News Shaun Bailey said:

“It’s not a liberty for [Keir Starmer] to rent out the house while he’s Prime Minister and make a little bit of money and keep going.

“The problem is he came from this really, really, puritanical space. Everything Tory MPs did was against the law, was mean, was against the spirit of it, and it turns out he’s doing it as well, and that’s what people will punish him for.

“But there’s another side to this story as well. We have got to stop being mean, spiteful and penny pinching around how people in public life live, and what they do, and where we spend our money.

“What people won’t know actually is, if you go into Number 10 it actually looks quite thread bear.

“And let’s be clear, we are inviting world leaders, people from all over the world who want to deal with this country, do stuff with this country. They come to Number 10, and they must think, ‘God, this place needs a lick of paint.’

“That’s all because we’ve got very spiteful around how people in public life do anything and I think we need to step away from that. And part of that is, look, if you want to rent the house out, fine, but he has to find a different way to speak about other people.

“Because we are now judging him with the yardstick he gave to us.

“Unfortunately for Angela Rayner and her puritanical stance, that will be the thing that people judge her by.

“When you’re saying to people, ‘the other side’ and it was open season on the Tories for years. What they needed to remember, the rules will flip to them, and it’s spoiling it for everyone.

“Now, the public think ‘A plague on all your houses’, and I just don’t think it’s right.

“They’re professional people. They want to make a little bit money, they have families, feed going forward, that would be my view in it.

“But it’s [Labour] who created this very toxic environment, and why it’s really bad is we don’t trust any of the institutions of the country.

“And I’d argue that those individuals, Keir Starmer, Angela Rayner, have been very instrumental in tearing down our trust for any institution in this country.

“The problem is these people, Keir Starmer, Angela Rayner and others, ran around saying how working class they are, how close to the people they are. Nobody I know can buy a 400 grand house.

“I’ve been homeless, I’ve been unemployed. Someone who’s worth a billion, or someone who’s worth a million, it was all the same to me at the time.”