Tories say PM is fuelling frustration over asylum seeker housing

Newly-appointed shadow housing secretary Sir James Cleverly has accused Sir Keir Starmer of fuelling public frustration over the housing of asylum seekers.

Sir James advised BBC Radio 4 the prime minister had “amplified” the state of affairs by saying on Monday there was “plenty of housing accessible” for the rising numbers of homeless individuals and asylum seekers.

“It is that form of disconnect that I believe is driving actual frustration and that is what I need to tackle,” the Conservative MP advised the Right now programme.

Labour, which has pledged to ship 1.5 million houses, stated the nation was nonetheless “dwelling with the implications” of the Tories’ “disastrous choice to abolish obligatory housing targets”.

A Labour spokesperson added: “Whereas Labour is working in partnership with areas to show the tide on the acute and entrenched housing disaster, the Conservatives have not modified they usually have not as soon as apologised for the mess they left behind.”

Sir James kicked off his new job with a go to to a housing undertaking in Hillingdon, north London, with Tory chief Kemi Badenoch, who handed him the function on Tuesday in a reshuffle of her prime crew.

The previous overseas secretary and residential secretary has been on the backbenches since dropping out to Badenoch in final yr’s Tory management contest.

His new function makes him the opposition counterpart to Angela Rayner in her housing, communities and native authorities transient, however not in her deputy prime minister publish.

Sir James advised the Right now programme: “We have got a authorities that made large guarantees when it got here to housebuilding and is spectacularly failing to ship on these guarantees and that’s producing numerous frustration, significantly with younger individuals ready to get on the housing ladder.”

He stated that was “amplified by the prime minister sitting on the liaison committee claiming there are many spare homes for asylum seekers, whereas individuals are struggling to get on the housing ladder”.

He was referring to feedback made by the prime minister on Monday, when he was being grilled by the liaison committee, which is made up of choose committee chairs.

Labour MP Dame Meg Hillier, who chairs the Treasury committee, requested the PM about the place the federal government was going to deal with homeless individuals, on condition that the value of non permanent lodging had been pushed up by the necessity to home asylum seekers.

He replied: “Oh, there’s plenty of housing and plenty of native authorities that can be utilized, and we’re figuring out the place it may be used.”

Pressed for particular examples, Sir Keir stated he would write to the committee.

The federal government has stated it desires to work in partnership with councils and in June Residence Workplace minster Angela Eagle stated it was seeking to purchase tower blocks and former pupil lodging to deal with migrants as a substitute for resorts.

Sir James was additionally requested for his view on leaving the European Conference on Human Rights (ECHR), after Badenoch launched a assessment to look at the difficulty.

Sir James wouldn’t say whether or not, like Badenoch has stated, he was additionally “more and more of the view” that the UK ought to go away the worldwide human rights treaty.

He advised the BBC this may “not essentially be a silver bullet” however that if the assessment results in it changing into social gathering coverage he would abide by that.

Badenoch echoed his level, telling reporters: “I would not convey somebody into the shadow cupboard in the event that they did not agree with me.”