in redbridge.h.— regular contact with. this is a guesthouse — regular contact with. this is a guesthouse that _ regular contact with. this is a guesthouse that nobody - regular contact with. this is a guesthouse that nobody has. regular contact with. this is a - guesthouse that nobody has chosen to live in. �* , guesthouse that nobody has chosen to live in. �*, ., ., ., , live in. there's around five or six families in _ live in. there's around five or six families in here. _ live in. there's around five or six families in here. over— live in. there's around five or six families in here. over 20 - live in. there's around five or six | families in here. over 20 people, includin: families in here. over 20 people, including at _ families in here. over 20 people, including at least _ families in here. over 20 people, including at least 12 _ families in here. over 20 people, including at least 12 children, - including at least 12 children, shared facilities, sometimes hearing to cook in the barely funct

redbridge council has brought labour values to life.es , libraries and building homes, libraries and leisure centres . they've been leisure centres. they've been protecting our key services. >> so whilst he has apologised, thatis >> so whilst he has apologised, that is jaz athwal and sacked the agency managing the properties, there are growing calls for him to resign. >> joining me now, barrister and writer stephen barrett. stephen, thank you very much for joining me . so stephen, i want to ask me. so stephen, i want to ask you first. so jas archewell, you had about 15 properties. i think you had 15. seven of those 15 didn't have a licence. as i understand it. is he breaking a law because this was something that he introduced? is he actually breaking a law? >> well, i don't want to definitively say that he was or wasn't breaking a law. >> i don't want to insert myself, embroil myself in some legal mess. >> what i can say is that there are huge ream of laws that apply to landlords in order to stop them acting in a rogue capacity before c

redbridge is in london.s a labour mp, i get it. if it was me or you that may or may not be a party political thing, but this is a labour mp who has introduced a licensing scheme which his own properties are not. he has not followed the rules himself whilst he was the head of the council, when the scheme was initiated. i spoke to stephen barrett, who's a lawyer. he wouldn't commit to, saying that just stop oil would have broken the law, but whether he has or he hasn't, surely this should trigger some sort of there should be an investigation and clearly what's interesting is when the labour party have people that they dislike, they're very quick to suspend and investigate and lose the whip and lose the whip, lose my seat, >> in a personal kind of level that happened to me, but when it's people they do like, then it's people they do like, then it takes a bit longer. i think there needs to be fairness here and accountability. i actually think that there's a problem with parliament that we let the parties do that

he was head of redbridge council. he set up the licensing. he was in charge.e infested with ants and damp. absolutely. why is no one talking about that. >> and i think that's a very good question because the one thing that jazz has said is that he wasn't aware of the problem. it's rubbish. and he sacked his the tenant management agency, who were supposedly responsible. i find that incredibly difficult to believe because the tenant management company would go to you as the landlord to say, we've had x amount of complaints about your property, the idea. but he was on record and saying, i wasn't aware. i think that's a lie. that's no defence anyway. >> it's no defence. let's pretend that he wasn't aware. how is it that he hadn't paid all the licences? he's got about 15 or 18 properties. seven of those licences were not paid . he those licences were not paid. he is in charge of the council. the council hold the licences and go and investigate. so again how is he getting out of that. and that should be fairly easy to check. >> it should be a matter of record if the

newly elected ilford south, the biggest landlord in parliament, 15 properties when he was leader of redbridget forward quite an interesting scheme, didn't he? yeah, he brought forward the licensing scheme. >> so if you want to rent out your property you had to have a licence . but it turns out that licence. but it turns out that seven of the 15 properties that he had did not have a licence, it was his own scheme. and of course his flats were full of mould and with ants. and i saw one of the videos where there was the fire alarm was just hanging from the ceiling. squalor. it was absolute squalor. and he i mean, they haven't , as i know, haven't yet haven't, as i know, haven't yet removed the whip. but this is by—election territory, surely. >> i mean, taking the whip off means they take them . they means they take them. they effectively just have to sit on the back benches as an independent and when the tories were in trouble last year or this year , labour would scream this year, labour would scream and shout and quite right, and the tories would take the whip off a number of mps. but he hasn'