Michael Meacher, the veteran Labour MP who was a staunch supporter of Jeremy Corbyn, left £5.2 million in his will after making a fortune from buying property.

The former environment minister in Tony Blair’s government died aged 75 last October and had been accused of hypocrisy over the houses he owned despite his strong socialist principles.

Meacher, who became an MP in 1970, and his second wife, Lucianne, were revealed in 2001 to be the owner of at least nine houses, maisonettes and flats worth £2 million, even though he had earlier spoken out against second-home ownership.

As well as his four-bedroom home in Wimbledon, southwest London, he had a four-bedroom retreat formed from three cottages with a swimming pool in the Cotswolds near Cirencester,