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Boris riles David Cameron with Kosovo remark
The Mole: I will not accept 'Kosovo-style exodus' of poor Londoners, says Mayor. Ouch!
Today's bare-knuckle dust-up between David Cameron and Boris Johnson over housing benefits - with Boris issuing the provocative warning that he will not accept a "Kosovo-style exodus from London" of the poor - is a timely reminder that we're less than two years away from a London mayoral election.
Cameron is insisting that he won't row back from the coalition proposal to cap housing benefit payments everywhere in the country at £400 a week from next April. (Lower limits will apply to smaller homes.)
Boris believes more than 80,000 families could face eviction from central London properties as a result - and is very aware that this policy alone could kill off his bid to be re-elected mayor in May 2012.
Yes, he may be a Tory mayor, but any sign that he is a stooge of this Tory-Lib Dem government, ready to sign up to a proposal that will hit Londoners harder than anyone, would be catastrophic.
He went on BBC Radio London this morning to say: "The last thing we want to have in our city is a situation such as Paris where the less well-off are pushed out to the suburbs.
"I'll emphatically resist any attempt to recreate a London where the rich and poor cannot live together...
"We will not accept any kind of Kosovo-style social cleansing of London. On my watch, you are not going to see thousands of families evicted from the place where they have been living and have put down roots."
Cameron was clearly furious, particularly at the Kosovo remark which referred, of course, to the ethnic cleansing that drove a million Albanians out of Kosovo in the 1990s.
The PM's spokesman said: "The Prime Minister doesn't agree with what Boris Johnson has said or indeed the way he said it."
But Boris had to act - quickly and forcefully. The Kosovo remark - which he borrowed from Labour MP Chris Bryant, who had used it earlier in the week to the fury of Nick Clegg - might be over-the-top but it will stick in the memory.
It might just be the difference between Boris getting re-elected in May 2012, in time for the London Olympics - or having to watch from the cheap seats as Ken Livingstone overseas the Games. ·
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Let's just be clear that a great number of people who receive housing benefit are workers on low wages. If they have to move out of central London (guaranteed to cause even more pressure on housing, education and health services in outer London boroughs like mine) the higher cost of commuting may make their low-paid jobs unaffordable. Historically, London has also relied on migrants (legal and illegal) to work for low pay in central London. They manage this by living in illegally overcrowded accommodation, causing huge disruption and upset to neighbours. It is also fair to say that housing benefit (and many other benefits) benefit wealthy employers because they can continue to pay low wages while the taxpayer picks up the tab.
This is a publicity stunt. Cameron gets to look tough, emphasised by Boris barking at him. Boris (up for mayoral re-election, you should note) gets to look like a friend of the downtrodden. If you listen to the numbers, 4/5 of the "poor" will not be affected because they are in council or housing association properties: only the 1/5 who are in private accomodation will be driven out (or will they?...rents will go down to accomodate the available funding, making London more affordable). This is a carfully stagemanaged piece of political theatre and you have all fallen for it, taking one side or the other, when in fact it is both sides buffing up their image. Please note, it is hard to polish a turd
If 80,000 move out, 80,000 will move in. Unless the current residents are more worthy than their replacements, no problem. There be a one-off period of some disruption, followed by the permanent benefit of people who choose to live in expensive London paying their own rents; their free choice, they pay. If people have to pay their own rent they will have an incentive to negotiate over some of the silly rents paid through benefits because renters don't care, it is other people's money. I'm sick of seeing mothers with many kids and no visible father(s) complaining the council doesn't give them a big enough house. It is one of the loony BBC's favourite sob stories. Please BBC, stop wasting my licence fee on that and show me some live cricket.
It's nice to know that the huge families of the unemployed immigrant population all get two votes each. A bit of affirmative action is just what we need in these times of Tory fairness.
Let's hope they all vote for Ken.
If all the cleaners were shifted 20 miles out into the suburbs we could spend even more money subsidizing their travel into the city. Another possibility is that the rich would have to wallow in filth which is horrible but would not apply to the super rich and government housed cleaners for No 10. Boris was an Eton Scolar which Cameron was not and it is easy to see the scolar's position. It should be possible to house low income people economically in central London and I suggest that if it is not we might as well close down Eton College.
The government says only that the British taxpayers' contribution is to be capped. If Boris wants to contribute more - either from Londoners' council tax or from his own pocket - I'm sure the huge families of the unemployed immigrant population will be eternally grateful and vote for him at least twice each.