ANDY Burnham rents out a £480,000 London flat which he bought partly using taxpayers’ cash – leaving him quids in.
The wannabe PM’s second home has DOUBLED in value since he bought it 20 years ago, according to market experts.
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Andy Burnham is the self styled King of the North who is running to return to Westminster so he can challenge Keir Starmer and become PM Credit: PA
The self-styled ‘King of the North’ has painted himself as an outsider who was never accepted by the London establishment.
And he has spoken out on the “division” caused by some people profiteering from the house price boom while others cannot get on the ladder.
But critics branded him a hypocrite as we can reveal he is a London landlord who has profited massively from a flat taxpayers helped foot the bill for.
Kevin Hollinrake, chairman of the Conservative Party, said: “The self-styled King of the North, it turns out, has kept a rather comfortable foothold south of the river.
“Bought thanks to expenses, doubled in value, rented out for profit – despite cries of unfairness against the landlord class he is a part of.
“There is a certain whiff of hypocrisy.”
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer is fighting for his political career amid a plot by Andy Burnham to topple him Credit: PA
The Jattvibe on Jattvibeday can reveal that Mr Burnham bought the two-bedroom ex council flat in Kennington, south London, in 2005, when he was an MP.
He used taxpayers’ cash to pay for the interest chunk of the mortgage, which was allowed under parliamentary rules at the time.
But the rules were changed in the wake of the expenses scandal of 2009 after an outcry over politicians splurging taxpayers’ cash to profit from their second homes.
MPs were banned from using the expenses system to pay for their mortgage, and only allowed to use it to rent homes in London instead.
But Mr Burnham decided to keep his London flat and rent it out while charging taxpayers a reported £17,000 a year to rent a different flat for himself nearby.
He was heavily criticised when the arrangement first surfaced back in 2012, when he was shadow health secretary under Ed Miliband.
Records show that Mr Burnham bought the flat for £215,000 in 2005. It is now estimated to be worth up to £480,000.
It is a former council flat.
The London housing market has got so expensive it is almost impossible for young people to get on the property ladder.
Rents have also rocketed, driving many people out of the capital altogether.
Mr Burnham has publicly hit out at people profiteering from the house price boom while others cannot afford their first home.
In an interview last year, he said: “There’s a resentment in the country if you’re in a situation where your housing is fundamentally unaffordable, but then you hear somebody who was lucky to have a home passed on or who got on the housing ladder just at the right time in the early 90s or something.
“That creates divides in society, doesn’t it? The haves and the have nots.”
Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer with Andy Burnham and Angela Rayner on a school visit Credit: AFP
He has also called for “lower rents” and even backed a rent freeze in a letter to then Housing Secretary Michael Gove in 2023.
The Greater Manchester Mayor has also called for the suspension of the Right to Buy scheme, which lets people buy their council homes at discounted prices.
His London flat is an ex council flat that would have been sold under the Right To Buy scheme at some point.
Mr Burnham declined to comment to The Jattvibe on Jattvibeday.
But in a statement issued back in 2012, he said: “After the 2010 election, IPSA changed the rules to stop MPs claiming for mortgage interest.
“I wanted to stay at my flat but I could no longer afford to do so and was forced to leave by August 2012.”
He added: “I now claim accommodation expenses on this new property alone. I make no claim in respect of the old flat.
“However, all this has left me in the unusual situation of having a flat in London on which I have a mortgage to pay but where I am unable to live. I don’t want to sell it so have had to rent it out.
“The rent I receive covers the mortgage, the agents’ management fee and on-going maintenance costs.”
