Disgraced Labour MP Kate Osamor says she is ‘proud’ to live in a council house

Disgraced Labour MP Kate Osamor has vowed to stay in her council house despite her generous salary.

The party’s former international development spokesman lives in a north London home worth £750,000 along with her former councillor son, who was recently convicted of drugs offences.

The council house is in Haringey, where there are 10,000 families waiting for a home. Miss Osamor, 50, continues to live there despite earning a salary of £77,379 plus expenses. Her son Ishmael earns up to £43,835 as his mother’s chief of staff

On Monday evening the defiant MP tweeted that everyone deserves a ‘home for life’.

She wrote: ‘On Christmas Eve, I will always remember that nearly 30yrs ago I was a homeless single mum who secured a tenancy to my home. Everyone deserves a home for life. I remain proud, not ashamed, to be in social housing.’

The comment will be controversial because many believe that people who earn large amounts should consider buying their own home privately – thus freeing up social housing for the needy.

The pair would not be eligible to apply for social housing now because of their combined wage. There is no upper limit to earnings once tenants have been placed in a property.

In Miss Osamor’s borough of Haringey, 3,000 are living in temporary accommodation, with some families living together in one room.

Her son Ishmael, 29, is still in his Commons job despite being caught with £2,500 of ecstasy, cocaine, ketamine and cannabis at the Bestival music festival in Dorset in September last year. Ishmael Osamor, who admitted three counts of possession with intent to supply and one count of possession, was ordered to do 200 hours of unpaid work and to pay £400 prosecution costs

Read more at