Reform’s Kent County Council leader has put Labour on blast after the Government eyes up handing out council homes to asylum seekers.
Labour-run Thanet council, among 200 others, is one of the authorities being considered to pilot a scheme to purchase new homes or refurbish sites for migrants.
Such authorities would span across Brighton and Hove, Thanet, Peterborough and Powys.
But Sir Keir Starmer is already under pressure from his own backbenchers to bin off the scheme, as critics the Prime Minister into yet another U-turn.
Among the critics, speaking to Martin Daubney, is Linden Kemkaran, who was up in arms over the plans, vowing she would rail against the scheme – with three authorities involved being in Kent.
She raged: “I absolutely do not want three council houses given out to asylum seekers.
“Can you imagine what the residents of Thanet must be thinking when they see that social housing desperately needed?
“Social housing is basically being built purely to house people who shouldn’t be in this country in the first place.
‘You just can’t have confidence in a single word that this Government says,’ the Reform council leader told GB News
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GB NEWS
“They call Reform UK divisive. I’ll tell you what’s divisive is putting British-born people at the bottom of the housing list.
“Housing is such a scarce resource. It is completely bonkers for the Government to be bribing councils – and it’s a Labour-run council, in fact, I hasten to add – to build social housing in the hope that one day these asylum seekers might move on, and then the social housing can be used for people on the waiting list.
“It is totally bonkers. I am dead against it now.”
Currently, there are 1.3 million people in Britain on a waiting list for social housing, on a three per cent year-on-year increase.
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Sir Keir Starmer could face another backbench rebellion over the move
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In some parts of Britain, the waiting is list is more than 100 years to acquire a family home.
“I do believe that Westminster is sometimes run by 20-year-old special advisers who are advising ministers on policies that affect people’s lives,” she fumed.
Continuing, the Reform leader added: “And there’s nothing wrong with 20-year-olds… However, what does a 20-year-old know about the effects of these barking mad policies and how they’re going to affect real people?
“And I think we’re seeing it in the U-turn after U-turn after U-turn. You just can’t have confidence in a single word that this Government says.
“And going back to the social housing waiting lists, it’s an utter disgrace that people who were born and bred in this country are not at the top of the list for social housing, and they’re seeing people who are coming from abroad illegally.
“In the case of many of the people who are going to be going on to the district council list of social housing, they shouldn’t be here in the first place.
“They’ve come here illegally. They’re getting put up in four-star hotels and now they’re getting given social housing. It’s an utter disgrace.”
A Government spokesman said: “New council housing will not be used by asylum seekers under any circumstances.
“This Government will close every asylum hotel. Work is well under way, with military sites brought forward to ease pressure on communities and cut asylum costs.”
GB News has approached Thanet District Council for comment.
