The resignation is a blow for the Labour government, which trails Nigel Farage’s right-wing Reform UK party in polls.

Britain’s minister for homelessness has resigned over allegations that she evicted tenants from a property she owns and increased rents by hundreds of pounds.

In her resignation letter to United Kingdom Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Thursday, Rushanara Ali, a junior minister in the Ministry of Housing, said she had followed all the legal requirements “at all times” in her dealings as a landlord.

Ali, the member of parliament for Bethnal Green and Stepney, evicted four tenants from her four-bedroom house in east London last year as the property was being sold, British outlet The i Paper reported on Wednesday.

The property, which had a monthly rent of 3,300 British pounds (about $4,433), was re-listed for rent and rented out weeks later at 4,000 British pounds ($5,374) after no buyer was found, the report added.

Ali, who has spoken out previously against tenants being exploited by “unreasonable rent increases”, told the prime minister in her resignation letter that she had taken her “responsibilities and duties seriously, and the facts demonstrate this”.

“However, it is clear that continuing in my role will be a distraction from the ambitious work of the government. I have therefore decided to resign from my Ministerial position,” she said.

She added that she was “proud to have contributed to the change this government has delivered in the past year”.

“Working alongside the Deputy Prime Minister, we secured record investment in social and affordable housing, and nearly a billion pounds of funding to alleviate homelessness and rough sleeping,” she said.

The end of rental contracts is considered one of the leading causes of homelessness in Britain, and Starmer’s government is currently preparing a Renters’ Rights Bill that will end short notice “no-fault” evictions by landlords and ban them from re-listing a property for higher rent within six months after eviction.

Ali is the fourth Labour minister to step down under pressure following the exits of the transport minister, Louise Haigh; the anticorruption minister, Tulip Siddiq; and junior health minister, Andrew Gwynne, for separate reasons.

The resignations represent an embarrassing blow for Starmer’s government, with his party trailing Nigel Farage’s right-wing populist Reform UK party in opinion polls just over a year after Labour won a landslide election victory.

A June survey by polling firm YouGov showed that Reform UK would win 271 of the 650 seats in the House of Commons if an election were held now, with the ruling Labour Party second at 178 seats.

The opposition Conservative Party’s chairman, Kevin Hollinrake, has criticised Starmer for presiding “over a government of hypocrisy and self-service”.

Convicted triple-murderer Erin Patterson allegedly tried to repeatedly poison her husband, including with cookies she claimed their daughter had baked him, a court has heard.

The Australian woman was last month found guilty of murdering three relatives – and attempting to kill another – with a toxic mushroom-laced beef Wellington.

The 50-year-old was originally charged with three counts of attempted murder against her estranged husband Simon Patterson, but these charges were dropped on the eve of her trial.

The details of the allegations – which Patterson denied – were suppressed to protect the proceedings, but can now be made public for the first time.

Three people died in hospital in the days after the lunch on 29 July 2023: Patterson’s former in-laws, Don Patterson, 70, and Gail Patterson, 70, as well as Gail’s sister, Heather Wilkinson, 66.

Local pastor Ian Wilkinson – Heather’s husband – recovered after weeks of treatment in hospital. Mr Patterson had also been invited to the lunch but pulled out at the last minute.

Pre-trial hearings, which are standard before many trials, allow parties and judges to determine what evidence is admissible – or allowed to be presented to a jury. In this case, as the charges relating to Mr Patterson were dropped, his evidence on the matter was excluded.

In lengthy hearings last year, he had detailed what he suspected was a years-long campaign to kill him with tainted food.

The court heard that one poisoning attempt left Mr Patterson so ill he spent weeks in a coma and his family was told to say their goodbyes twice.

He told the court that Patterson had tried to kill him with a curry, a wrap, Bolognese pasta, and even with chocolate cookies she claimed their daughter had made him.

He became suspicious so started making notes, realising he often became sick when she fed him, the court heard.

Mr Patterson shared his suspicions with a couple of relatives – including, critically, his father Don Patterson – then a GP, but didn’t take things further.

He said he thought he was the only one in danger – and this is why he refused to come to the lunch.

When his parents became desperately ill, though, Mr Paterson pulled his relatives into the hospital chapel and told them he suspected his estranged wife had been trying to poison him for years.

Police believed rat poison may have been used on at least one occasion, the pre-trial hearings were told.

Haiti has appointed businessman Laurent Saint-Cyr as the head of its transitional presidential council as the country continues to battle rampant gang violence, corruption and economic insecurity.

Saint-Cyr’s inauguration ceremony took place on Thursday at the Villa d’Accueil, a colonial-style mansion in a suburb of the capital, Port-au-Prince.

“We must restore state authority,” Saint-Cyr said at the ceremony. “The challenges we face are certainly linked to insecurity, but they also are the result of our lack of courage, a lack of vision and our irresponsibility.”

But even the location of Saint-Cyr’s inauguration was a sign of the instability Haiti faced. The federal government has been largely displaced from downtown Port-au-Prince, where gangs control nearly 90 percent of the city.

On Thursday morning, one prominent gang leader, Jimmy “Barbecue” Cherizier, even pledged to disrupt Saint-Cyr’s inauguration.

“We have decided to march on the premier’s office and the Villa d’Accueil to end it all,” Cherizier said in a video posted online.

He called on Port-au-Prince’s residents to assist him and his fighters in their approach of the mansion: “People of Haiti, take care of yourselves and help us.”

But Cherizier was ultimately not successful. A security mission backed by the United Nations and led by Kenya issued a statement explaining that police officers had increased their patrols in the area.

“Armed gangs had plotted to disrupt national stability and render the country ungovernable,” the statement said, asserting that law enforcement had successfully deterred those efforts.

Saint-Cyr’s appointment, however, has drawn scrutiny for what it symbolises in the conflict-torn country.

Both Saint-Cyr and Haiti’s prime minister, Alix-Didier Fils-Aime, are light-skinned, mixed-race businessmen who made their fortunes in the private sector. Saint-Cyr worked in the insurance industry, while Fils-Aime led an internet company.

The majority of Haitians, however, are Black, with only 5 percent of the population identifying as mixed race. The country itself is the poorest in Latin America.

Some critics fear the leadership of figures like Saint-Cyr could herald a slide backwards for Haiti’s government, where power has long been concentrated among the rich and lighter-skinned.

The country has not held a presidential election since 2016, and turmoil in the country increased following the 2021 assassination of Jovenel Moise.

Criminal networks have exploited the power vacuum to expand their own influence, while denouncing the remaining government leadership as inefficient and corrupt.

Though the presidential council was only formed in April 2024, by the end of that year, three of its members had been accused of corruption, though they denied wrongdoing.

The transitional presidential council is considered to be widely unpopular, and its nine members have been rotating into the leadership position.

Saint-Cyr is meant to be the final head of the council before it completes its task of holding a presidential election on February 7, 2026. At that point, Saint-Cyr and the council are expected to hand off power to the election’s victor.

Elections for roles in the federal government are expected to unfold in three stages, starting in November and ending with February’s presidential race. But critics warn gang violence could thwart those plans.

The United Nations estimates that 4,864 people in Haiti were killed from October 2024 to June of this year.

Threats of violence have forced essential services to shut down, including hospitals and roadways, and nearly 1.3 million people have been displaced from their homes.

The humanitarian situation in Haiti is considered among the most dire in the world, and Saint-Cyr called on the international community to respond with further resources.

“I invite all international partners to increase their support, send more soldiers, provide more training,” Saint-Cyr said at Thursday’s ceremony. “I am asking the security forces to intensify their operations.”

Ambassadors from several foreign countries were in attendance. He directed some of his remarks at them.

“Our country is going through one of the greatest crises in all its history,” Saint-Cyr said. “It’s not the time for beautiful speeches. It’s time to act.”