A Labour MP who served in Jeremy Corbyn’s shadow administration and has spent much of his Parliamentary career criticising the private rental sector has been suspended from the Labour Party.
Media reports say Lloyd Russell-Moyle has been told he cannot stand in the July 4 General Election.
Russell-Moyle - who held a foreign affairs brief while Labour was led by Corbyn - was also chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Renters and Rental Reform. This committee had as its remit: “To raise the conditions of renters and provide a space in Parliament to have their voices heard; receive briefings from external organisations about the latest studies and research with concerns to the private rented sector; work co-operatively and in a cross-party way with the government on the introduction of the forthcoming Rental Reform Bill; arrange events in Parliament to allow for tenant organisations to meet with MPs to raise their concerns.”
He has had a spectacular career in the Commons since being elected in 2017.
In December 2018 he was suspended from the Commons for a day after seizing the ceremonial mace in a gesture against the government. In 2019, according to the Wikipedia, he was involved in a physical altercation while showing support for demonstrators in London.
In 2020 he was reported to have shared a link to an unredacted version of a Labour Party report into anti-semitism issues, which contained the names and details of whistle-blowers. That same year he issued another apology, this time after writing an article in which he accused J K Rowling of discrimination against transgender groups.
Russell-Moyle was an enthusiastic supporter of the original Renters Reform Bill. In 2022 he and the then-Tory MP Natalie Elphicke - who has since defected to Labour - led a debate in the House of Commons. He told the local media in Brighton at the time: “It’s clear renters are being evicted so landlords can charge more rent. We are seeing rental inflation of over 20 per cent in parts of the country and unless we get a grip of this problem there will be a wave of homelessness coming out of the private rented sector.”
Also in 2022 he wrote on the Labour website Labour List that he hoped the Renters Reform Bill could be extended to involve “compensation for tenants who are evicted for any reason. If a landlord has to pay two months’ rent to a tenant for evicting them, this could act as a financial deterrent and would also provide money for the tenant to find new housing.”
In the same article he wrote: “Deposit schemes regularly steal tenants’ money because they mark their own homework with internal disputes processes. Landlords generally have the resources and the upper hand in the power dynamic of disputes.”
But last night Russell-Moyle was suspended from the Labour Party and is being prevented from standing for Parliament again following an unspecified complaint lodged last week.
A Labour Party spokesperson told the media last night: “The Labour Party takes all complaints extremely seriously and they are fully investigated in line with our rules and procedures, and any appropriate disciplinary action is taken.”
Russell-Moyle issued a statement saying he would continue to contribute to public life in different ways “under what I hope is a Labour government”, adding: “I wish Keir Starmer, Angela Rayner, and the Labour team the best of luck and hope to be celebrating Labour wins across Sussex and beyond on election night.”
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