Labour MP and Jeremy Corbyn ally charged with housing fraud over council flat

Tom Wells

Published: 21:30, 28 Oct 2020
Updated: 9:10, 29 Oct 2020

A LABOUR MP and close Jeremy Corbyn ally has been charged with housing fraud.

Apsana Begum, 30, entered Parliament at last December’s general election with a giant 28,904 majority in East London’s Poplar and Limehouse.

Labour MP Apsana Begum has been charged with housing fraud over how she secured her council flatCredit: London News Pictures

But she has been accused of three offences relating to how she was given her council flat.

She is due before magistrates on December 10.

If convicted, Ms Begum could face a jail sentence and lose her Commons seat.

We told last November she was facing a probe over the riverside flat she moved into after leaving her estranged husband’s home.

Investigators wanted to know how she had leapt to the top of an 18,000-strong housing list so quickly despite having no children.

At the time, Ms Begum denied any wrongdoing, claiming her housing situation was “in a state of flux” after her marriage breakdown.

And she insisted there was no probe.

'A DISGRACE'

Ms Begum said: “I was so grateful to be housed, which provided me with the lifeline I needed to live independently and safely.”

Labour also said our story was “a disgrace”. But charges have been brought against her in recent days.

Ms Begum is thought to have applied for a Tower Hamlets council flat while living with her family in 2011.

She moved in with her husband in 2014 but they split a year later.

Within six months, she was offered the one-bed Isle of Dogs pad in a block on the Thames, run by a housing association but with tenants nominated by the council.

Far-left Momentum member Ms Begum was a controversial choice as Labour candidate.

She was once an assistant to corrupt mayor Lutfur Rahman, who was booted out for rigging an election.

She also shared claims ex-Labour PM Tony Blair was spreading “Zionist propaganda”.

Last night, lawyers for Ms Begum told The Sun: “Ms Begum vigorously contests these malicious and false allegations.

The Sun Says

CRANKY Corbyn might be back on the back benches where he belongs, but his miserable legacy lives on.

Tomorrow, the race watchdog will make a historic ruling on whether Her Majesty’s Opposition became institutionally anti-Semitic under his leadership.

And astonishingly, as The Sun reveals today, one of his MP cronies has just been charged with three counts of housing fraud.

Car accidents aside, Sir Keir Starmer appears keen to prove that he’s a statesman in waiting.

But British voters don’t respond well to racism and fraud. So unless he makes a stand against the dregs of the hard-Left in his ranks, his election chances will be wrecked by 2024.

If the EHRC rules against the former Labour leader today, Jeremy Corbyn must be ousted from the party.

Yes, Momentum supporters might scuttle off after him. But, some loss: they are extremists who fantasise about fighting “oppressors” in the streets — and they repulse ordinary Brits.

Starmer has been given the opportunity to wrest Labour back from the hard-Left. He should seize it with both hands.