Keir Starmer branded hypocrite for wanting councils to punish landowners — months after selling plot for £320,000
SIR Keir Starmer has been branded a hypocrite over plans to punish landowners — six months after he sold a seven-acre plot for £320,000.
Labour leader Sir Keir, who flogged the Green Belt land where his parents kept donkeys, wants to force people into selling below market-value in a bid to supercharge house-building.
A source said a new law would let town halls compulsorily purchase land at a price stripped of its “hope value” — a premium reflecting potential development.
Research shows this can be up to 250 times more per hectare.
Sir Keir faced a backlash after it emerged he had sold a site behind his old family home in Oxted, Surrey.
He bought it in 1996 for his parents for an undisclosed sum, Land Registry documents show, but decided to sell for £320,000 when they died.
It is highly likely he made a hefty profit on his investment.
Tory deputy chairman Lee Anderson said: “With Slippery Starmer it’s always one rule for him and another for everyone else.
“He’s more than happy to let councils buy cut-price prime property, so long as he gets to line his own pockets.”
One local said: “I feel sorry for the new owner. I don’t think he’d have bought it if he’d known he may have to sell it for much less.”
Dad-of-three James Vinall, 62, added: “We’re short of housing but sequestering private property won’t work — unless you are running a dictatorship, of course.”
Labour sources stressed the party policy referred to compulsory purchase orders, whereas Sir Keir’s was a private sale.