Senior Tories have held private talks with big landlords about how to thwart the government’s renters’ rights bill, the Guardian has learned, with ideas including launching a legal challenge under human rights law.
Jane Scott, the shadow housing minister, recently hosted a roundtable meeting with several of the country’s largest landlords and estate agents, at which they discussed a number of ways to delay or stop the bill altogether. The ideas included challenging it in the courts and delaying it with repeated rounds of Lords amendments, according to three people in attendance.
The discussions have prompted accusations of collusion between the Tories and property industry. They also give an indication of how hard the Conservatives are likely to fight the bill in its final stages, even though the party tried to pass a similar version of the proposals when it was in government.
Jane Scott being a bargain basement Reinhard Heydrich.