High profile Conservative MP Sir James Cleverly has become Shadow Housing Secretary – replacing the housing expert and founder of Hunters, Kevin Hollinrake.
Cleverly, who has languished on the backbenches since being knocked out of the election to become Tory leader in summer 2024, is a former Foreign Secretary and Home Secretary but appears to have had little direct political experience of housing.
However, in January 2016 he voted against a Labour proposed to the Housing and Planning Bill of that year, which would have required private landlords to make homes which they put up for rent fit for human habitation. According to Parliament’s register of interests, Cleverly was one of 72 Conservative MPs who voted against the amendment and who personally derived an income from renting out property. The Conservative government of the time had responded to the amendment by saying that it believed homes should be fit for human habitation but did not want to pass the new law that would explicitly require it.
His current entry in the MPs’ register of interests lists no property or land producing an income for him.
In his new role, Cleverly will oppose Housing Secretary and Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner.
In a speech last week, Cleverly warned his party against pursuing a populist agenda that would try to ape Nigel Farage’s Reform UK. He also discounted the idea that he hoped to replace Badenoch, saying his party had to “get out of this habit of cycling through leaders in the hope that ditching this one and picking a new one will make life easy for us”.
Meanwhile Kevin Hollinrake, who previously held the shadow housing role, will move to be Tory party chair – a job that involves operating the machinery of the party including fund-raising and campaigning.
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This article is taken from Landlord Today