Westminster Blog

We are about to see the full details of Labour’s new policy of giving priority on council housing waiting lists to local residents.

This is an obvious dog whistle to working class voters who might otherwise vote BNP.

Here is a reminder of what happened to Margaret Hodge when she suggested something very similar two years ago. She was attacked by senior Labour figures including Alan Johnson, Peter Hain, Jon Cruddas and Ken Livingstone.

Here’s a recap of what she suggested. A need for social housing policy to take account of length of residence, citizenship and national insurance contributions.

This was Livingstone’s riposte: “Margaret Hodge’s suggestion that housing allocation should be based not on need but factors like length of residence would be catastrophic for community relations.”

Johnson accused Hodge of “using the language of the BNP.”

And now it’s going to be government policy.

UPDATE

Here is the page in the BNP’s manifesto which includes: “Make length of residency in an area the key criterion for council house allocation.”