Cameron won’t win PMQs points by misleading MPs and the public on housing and homelessness

Last Updated: February 11, 2016By

David Cameron implied homelessness was falling. Was he mistaken – or was it a flat-out lie?

This Writer apologises for having missed Prime Minister’s Questions this week – I was at a meeting elsewhere and was unable to follow events in Westminster.

Commentaries published afterwards seem to suggest that David Cameron has raised his game since last week – actually attempting to answer the questions instead of rattling off meaningless soundbites. That’s good for the quality of UK political debate.

The actual answers he provided, I understand, aren’t.

Therefore Vox Political must award the PMQs victory to Jeremy Corbyn once again, as David Cameron seems to have been unable or unwilling to provide accurate responses.

Here’s the Daily Mirror to clarify:

David Cameron tried to defend his Government’s record on housing and homelessness at Prime Minister’s Questions – but his figures don’t stand up to scrutiny.

Here’s four times David Cameron misled MPs over the Conservative Party’s record on housing.

1. “Homelessness is half the peak that it was under Labour”

While it’s true that homelessness reached its peak at 115,270 in 2004/05 while Labour were in power, that figure dropped dramatically year after year.

That is, until 2010, when David Cameron became Prime Minister.

Since then, it’s risen every year but one – and has shot up by 55% since the Tories swept into number 10.

2. The bar for what counts as being homeless has been raised

The homelessness statistics in the early 2000s were undeniably quite high – but all is not quite as it seems.

At the time, single men in overcrowded households were counted among the homelessness figures.

The criteria for homelessness has changed since then, with overcrowding removed from the stats.

The bar for what counts as being homeless has been raised – and it’s still going up under the Tories.

3. “In the last five years we’ve built more council houses than they’ve built in 13 years”

What he didn’t mention is that the Tories are selling off eight social houses for every one new one they build.

As a result the total stock of council houses in England has gone down by 142,589 since David Cameron came to power.

4. And he was talking about council houses, not social housing

Some 328,000 social houses were built under the last Labour government, compared to 161,000 between 2010 and May this year.

So far, the Tories have been building at roughly the same rate (or slightly slower) than Labour were in the last years of their Government.

Source: 4 times David Cameron misled MPs in 15 minutes over housing and homelessness at PMQs – Mirror Online

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No Comments

  1. Michael Broadhurst February 11, 2016 at 12:11 pm - Reply

    you cant believe anything this man says,as soon as he opens his gob you know its another lie coming out.

  2. Barry Davies February 11, 2016 at 1:19 pm - Reply

    Well he still repeats his mantra of the last government being all bad completely forgetting it was him osbourne and the lap dog Clegg who were running the last government.

  3. NMac February 11, 2016 at 2:01 pm - Reply

    Just another of Cameron’s many, many lies.

  4. Michael Broadhurst February 11, 2016 at 6:42 pm - Reply

    haha barry davies,good point,he does keep saying the last govt doesn’t he,forgetting it was him,osborne,and as you say lap dog clegg who were running the last govt.

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