Labour MP Apsana Begum charged with housing fraud
Labour MP Apsana Begum is charged with housing fraud after acquiring her £300,000 council flat in just six months
- Labour MP Apsana Begum, 30, has been charged with council housing fraud
- She’s accused of three offences in relation to an Isle of Dogs flat in east London
- MP denied wrongdoing or existence of a probe and said housing was a ‘lifeline’
Labour MP Apsana Begum has been charged with housing fraud after questions arose over how she acquired her London council flat.
A close ally of Jeremy Corbyn, Ms Begum, 30, has been accused of three offences in relation to the £300,000 one-bed Isle of Dogs flat in east London, reports The Sun.
Ms Begum is due to appear in magistrates court on December 10 and potentially faces losing her seat in the House of Commons or time in prison.
Ms Begum, 30, has been accused of three offences in relation to the one-bed Isle of Dogs flat in east London
The MP previously denied any wrongdoing or the existence of a probe, claiming that she was able to quickly find council housing due to the breakdown of her marriage in 2014 which left her in a ‘state of flux’, reports the publication.
Ms Begum is believed to have first made an application for a council house while living with her parents in Tower Hamlets, London, in 2011.
She then married and moved in with her husband in 2014, but following the split Ms Begum found council housing again six months later.
Ms Begum told The Sun: ‘I was so grateful to be housed, which provided me with the lifeline I needed to live independently and safely.’
The £300,000 one-bed Isle of Dogs flat in east London run by a housing association – with tennants nominated by the council
Apsana Begum is an ally of Jeremy Corbyn, and MP for Poplar and Limehouse in East London
London’s Isle of Dogs sits on the bend in the Thames made famous by the credits for EastEnders and is home to the Docklands financial district
The MP for Poplar and Limehouse in East London, who won her seat in the December 2019 general election, was previously forced to apologise for Facebook posts including one which suggested Saudi Arabia’s leaders were ‘inspired by their Zionist masters’.
At the time she said she had not made the post herself but shared it ‘because I was concerned with the treatment of pilgrims who were being harassed in the Mecca Grand Mosque’.
She said she would not use the words herself and was ‘committed to fighting anti-Semitism’.
MailOnline has contacted Ms Begum for comment.
Labour Party’s Apsana Begum (centre) and Claudia Webbe (right) at the launch of the Labour Party race and faith manifesto at the Bernie Grant Arts Centre, north London. November 2019
