THE GOVERNMENT plans to clear lower income families and ethnic minorities out of central London, according to a leading Labour politician.
Popular on LondonNet
Shadow Work and Pensions Minister Karen Buck told a meeting commemorating International Women’s Day that the government doesn’t “want lower-income women, families, children and, above all, let us be very clear – because we also know where the impact is hitting – they don’t want black women, they don’t want ethnic minority women and they don’t want Muslim women living in central London.”
“They just don’t.”
Buck – MP for Westminster North – based her social-cleansing analysis on the Tory government’s planned cuts to housing benefit that will make it hard for low income families to afford to live in central London.
Those cuts come in next month.
Buck’s provocative comments drew a sharp response from the government side.
“For Karen Buck to use race, religion and class for political point-scoring is deeply offensive and irresponsible,” said Tory party chair Baroness Warsi.
But last year, Tory London Mayor Boris Johnson made a similar case made a similar case to Buck when he said he would “not accept any kind of Kosovo-style social cleansing of London.”
Since news of her comments emerged, Buck has rowed back a bit with the invective, but still holds to the view that the housing benefit cuts will have the results she outlined.
“In the passion of a political meeting I was wrong to imply motive on behalf of Government ministers,” she said.
“My concern is about the impact that these cuts will have. I am very, very concerned about the impact of these cuts on black, Muslim and ethnic minority households, in particular.”