Labour candidate faces probe over whether she wrongly secured £330,000 council flat

A LABOUR candidate faces an investigation over whether she wrongly secured a council flat.

Apsana Begum, 29, was given the £330,000 riverside property just months after moving out of her estranged husband’s home.

Questions are being asked over how she leapt to the top of a 18,000-strong housing list, despite having no children.

A source told The Sun: “The speed of being granted the flat is surprising to say the least.

“She needs to show that she properly declared her change in circumstances at all points and answer whether she continued to bid for council housing after marrying?

“These are the issues investigators will look into.”

Momentum member Ms Begum is seen as a shoo-in as MP for Poplar and Limehouse, which had a 27,700 Labour majority in 2017.

But the councillor’s daughter has been dogged by controversy because of her links to former mayor of Tower Hamlets Lutfur Rahman, who was banned for vote-rigging.

OFFICIAL COMPLAINTS

The Sun understands the chief executive of Tower Hamlets has had two official complaints over Ms Begum’s housing arrangements.

She is thought to have applied for a council flat while living with her family in 2011. She moved in with her husband in 2014 but they split a year later.

Within six months Ms Begum was offered the one-bed Isle of Dogs flat in a riverside block run by a housing association but to which the council nominates tenants.

A Labour source said Ms Begum’s housing situation was in flux after her relationship breakdown.

The source added: “It’s a disgrace these malicious attacks are being published and she is being forced to relive these traumatic experiences.”

A Tower Hamlets council spokesman said it took allegations of housing fraud “very seriously”.

It comes as Ms Begum also faces claims over an alleged leak of a list of Labour party members.

She said any claims linking her to a leak were “false and defamatory”.

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