A Conservative former cabinet minister has warned that the Tory vote in London is collapsing over the failure to build more homes.
Simon Clarke — who served as chief secretary to the Treasury under Boris Johnson and then as levelling up secretary under Liz Truss — accused the Tory party of “pulling up the ladder” for younger voters.
In a thread on Twitter, Clarke shared an article by ConservativeHome editor Paul Goodman, which said: “Young people aren’t stupid. Whatever Conservative MPs may say, they can hear the music: that there’s nothing on offer for them.”
And he asked: “Why should they vote Tory if the party shuts them out from ownership and capital?”
Clarke replied: “Spot on. We need to build more homes.”
Clarke, who was sacked by Rishi Sunak when he became prime minister, spoke out after the government was forced to pull its flagship levelling up bill scheduled for next Monday.
The bill would have committed the government to building 300,000 homes per year as laid out in the Conservative Party’s 2019 general election manifesto.
But around 50 Conservative backbenchers, including former cabinet ministers, signed an amendment to the bill that would ban councils from taking centrally set housebuilding targets into account when deciding on planning applications.
Sunak’s decision to pull the vote has dealt a severe blow to his authority as he struggles to overturn Labour’s 20-point lead in the polls — although the Opposition has warned they expect that gap to narrow closer to the election.
The Conservative Party is braced for a mass exodus of MPs after two rising stars in the party, Chloe Smith and William Wragg, announced they would not be standing at the next election.
Following reports that the government had been forced to pull the bill amid the threat of a rebellion, Clarke said: “If you want to see what the future of the Conservatives is when we don’t build homes, look at London.
“Our collapsing vote in the capital is at least in part because you can’t make the case for popular Conservatism if you can’t afford to buy, or even rent.
“The flip side, why can we win in areas like Teesside? It’s at least in part because if you are a nurse or a teacher, you can still afford a proper family home. This isn’t rocket science - it’s economics and politics 101.”
He added: “We also have to recognise this is an issue where Conservatives bear a heavy responsibility. Politicians of all parties play games with this. But we are meant to be the party of opportunity, and we are pulling up the ladder for everyone under 40.”
The amendment — dubbed the “Destroy the Planning System and Make the Recession Worse Amendment” by critics — was proposed by former environment secretary Theresa Villiers.
Villiers, the MP for Chipping Barnet, also suggested changes including making it easier for councils to ban building on greenfield land and providing more incentives to develop brownfield sites.
Support for the amendment removing the housing target rose from an initial nine MPs to around 46 on Tuesday, with former Cabinet ministers Iain Duncan Smith, John Redwood, Chris Grayling, Damian Green, Wendy Morton and Priti Patel among its backers.
Downing Street said Sunak was still committed to the government’s target of building 300,000 homes a year.
The prime minister’s official spokesperson said: “We want to work constructively to ensure we build more of the homes in the right places. That’s something that the department and the secretary of state are very focused on.
He added that the housing secretary, Michael Gove, would continue to discuss how the 300,000-home target could be delivered.