The Labour MP Jas Athwal is the landlord of an unsafe private care home where children have gone missing and been left at risk of criminal exploitation, The Londoner can reveal.
Athwal, said to be parliament’s biggest landlord, is friends with the home’s owner, whose company was paid millions of pounds by Redbridge Council during the period Athwal was council leader.
Daljit Johal endorsed Athwal before the 2019 general election and the two men have interacted on multiple occasions in public Facebook posts, including one comment in which Athwal called Johal “the don”. Records show Johal's company Heartwood Care saw its funding from Redbridge Council rise more than sixfold after Athwal became leader, which both men say had nothing to do with Athwal taking over.
The newly-elected MP’s relationship to the children’s home and its owner Johal has never been reported on before and there is no evidence he declared the relationship to the council during his ten years in charge. He says it was sufficient to declare that he owned the property and says he had “no involvement” in the procurement of children’s services. The Conservative Party has called for an investigation into the matter.
Athwal was heavily criticised after the BBC exposed the poor condition of some of his flats, which prime minister Sir Keir Starmer described as "unacceptable". The MP is a close ally of the health secretary Wes Streeting, who previously served as his deputy leader at the council. We asked Labour if Streeting knew about the children’s home in Athwal’s property, but the party didn’t respond.
In August, an Ofsted inspection found “serious and widespread failures that meant children and young people are not protected” at the home, and a 2019 inspection mentioned “bullying and intimidation” leading to a child being stabbed. Last year, an inspection criticised the home for its “bare and uninviting” rooms and said: "there is an issue with suspected child criminal exploitation."
In the past, the home has also received good inspection reports, and a recent visit found improvements, but the severity of the report from August placed Heartwood in a group with some of the worst performing providers in the country, according to Ofsted.
On Friday, Redbridge Council told us that “no children from Redbridge have been placed at this residential home”, suggesting that the council was paying Heartwood for the use of other homes and services. But Heartwood contradicted this in a letter this weekend. The company’s lawyer says “a few children have been placed at the Care Home, and, as a result, the home has received revenue from Redbridge Council totalling £155,000.”
Athwal insists he knows nothing about the conditions inside the home, despite being its long-term landlord. In a brief call with The Londoner last week he twice claimed not to know who ran the home and said “I’ve never been to that property”. When we mentioned Johal, whose company Heartwood operates the home and has received vast sums of taxpayers’ money from Redbridge Council, Athwal ended the call.
The Labour MP Jas Athwal said he knows "nothing about it" when we called to ask him about the failing children's home in his property.
— The Londoner (@_TheLondoner) October 28, 2024
When we mentioned the home's owner, his friend and longtime tenant Daljit Johal, he hung up. pic.twitter.com/HQTvAQuB2o
A Conservative Party spokesperson told The Londoner: "These are serious allegations, and it would only be right for an investigation to be launched. Mr. Athwal has already been found to be renting out substandard properties, despite feigning interest in the rights of renters. He must come clean and address these allegations head on."
Public records show that Redbridge Council has paid Heartwood £3.3 million since 2013. Heartwood was paid £130,493 the year before Athwal became council leader, rising to £787,000 in the year he took over the local authority. Heartwood say they also experienced a similar uptick in revenue from other councils at the time.
The council appears to be supportive of Athwal, insisting that councillors have “no influence or role in deciding which providers are used” and adding: “There was no conflict of interest that needed to be declared.”
Former Children’s Commissioner for England Anne Longfield told us otherwise. When we described the scenario in this story to Longfield last week, she told The Londoner there was a "clear conflict of interest", adding that she would “expect any financial connection to be very transparent and part of any conflict of interest statement given”.
Via a lawyer, Athwal threatened to sue The Londoner, saying our reporting is “without any evidential foundation whatsoever”. His lawyer said in a letter this weekend: “If you publish such scurrilous and untrue allegations, legal proceedings will be instigated against you immediately in the High Court and substantial damages will be sought.” The letter nevertheless confirmed all of the key details in our story.
The lawyer said it was unfair for us to quote what Athwal said on the phone, because “our client took the call when he was on a crowded Elizabeth Line train.” They said Athwal had interpreted our question to be about the day-to-day manager of the home rather than Johal, and added: “Our client has acted properly at all times”.
A spokesperson for Heartwood, who contacted us after publication, told us that 90% of the services it provided to Redbridge did "not relate to the care home referenced" and said our story was misleading. “The Londoner story is seriously inaccurate, defamatory of Mr Johal and his organisations, and is irresponsible journalism done in a headlong rush to meet a launch deadline. There is no improper relationship between Mr Johal and Mr Athwal, and to suggest so is just plain wrong."
They added that the care home "has experienced a challenging period because of sector-wide recruitment difficulties. All improvements required by Ofsted in August 2024 have been addressed speedily by Heartwood, with the regulator reporting that the compliance notices were met by the end of September 2024."
Read our full investigation – The MP, the 'Don' - and the millions spent on children's care.
The Londoner is the capital's new quality newspaper, delivered via email. Join our free mailing list to get great journalism in your inbox several times a week.
Editorial note 28/10: This story was amended after publication to include a new statement from Heartwood. It was also corrected to remove the claim that children's social care forms part of Wes Streeting's ministerial brief – thanks to the reader who pointed out this error.
Comments
Sign in or become a The Londoner member to leave comments. To add your photo, click here to create a profile on Gravatar.
