Reeves will not face ethics probe despite misleading Starmer about rent licence row

In letters released on Thursday night, the Prime Minister told the Chancellor that, despite misleading him over the row, he had accepted that it was done mistakenly.

In a letter between Sir Keir and ethics adviser Sir Laurie Magnus, the latter accepted that the failure to get a licence to rent was "an unfortunate but inadvertent error, for which the Chancellor has swiftly taken responsibility and apologised".

Referring to an earlier letter where Ms Reeves wrongly told the PM that she and her husband were not aware of the requirement, Sir Laurie added: "It is regrettable that information provided on successive days has generated confusion, but I find no evidence of bad faith".

Sir Laurie concluded that despite misleading him, Reeves's husband Nicholas Joicey "did not recall this exchange [with the letting agents], which took place at a very busy time."

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After receiving the advice from Sir Laurie, Sir Keir wrote to his Chancellor to confirm no further action will be taken.

The Prime Minster wrote: "It is clearly regrettable that the information in this correspondence was not shared with me when you wrote to me last night, but I fully accept that you were not aware, at that stage, of these emails."

Concluding the letter, Sir Keir said: "Based on the information you have provided to me, I still regard this as a case of an inadvertent failure to secure the appropriate licence, which you have apologised for and are now rectifying.

"Having consulted the Independent Adviser on Ministerial Standards and received his clear and swift advice, with which I concur, I see no need for any further action."

Ms Reeves's being cleared for a second time comes despite suggestions that Starmer being misled could trigger a formal investigation by Sir Laurie.

After initial suggestions of impropriety on Wednesday evening, Ms Reeves published letters which proved that her husband had instructed Harvey Wheeler to secure the licence with Southwark Council.

In one email dated July 26, Harvey Wheeler reveals the licence will cost £900, adding: "You will pay in two parts, so £640 first and then once the application has been processed then the remaining £260.00 is taken."

The email from the letting agent also appeared to confirm the company was responsible for applying for the licence, as it added: "I don't apply for the licence until we actually have tenants move in so this payment won't need to be paid until after move in."

The south London agents apologised to Ms Reeves and her family on Thursday.

In a statement Gareth Martin, owner of Harvey Wheeler, estate agents said: "We alert all our clients to the need for a licence. In an effort to be helpful our previous property manager offered to apply for a licence on these clients' behalf, as shown in the correspondence.

"That property manager suddenly resigned on the Friday before the tenancy began on the following Monday.

"Unfortunately, the lack of application was not picked up by us as we do not normally apply for licences on behalf of our clients; the onus is on them to apply.

"We have apologised to the owners for this oversight.

"At the time the tenancy began, all the relevant certificates were in place and if the licence had been applied for, we have no doubt it would have been granted.

"Our clients would have been under the impression that a licence had been applied for. Although it is not our responsibility to apply, we did offer to help with this.

"We deeply regret the issue caused to our clients as they would have been under the impression that a licence had been applied for."