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.