The Home Secretary has no plans to ban the outdoor equipment shop Millets, Penny Mordaunt has joked after Suella Braverman’s proposals to limit the availability of tents to the homeless.
The Commons Leader said the Government has made the “largest investment ever” in tackling homelessness and rough sleeping after being questioned on Ms Braverman’s plans by Labour’s Lucy Powell.
Despite expectations that Tuesday’s King’s Speech would include a ban on charities from handing out tents to the homeless, the measure was notably absent from the address.
Last week, Ms Braverman said many rough sleepers who bed down on the streets have made a “lifestyle choice” and that action was needed to ensure the UK did not follow the example of some cities in the US where “weak policies” had triggered an “explosion of crime, drug taking, and squalor”.
She made the comments on X, formerly Twitter, as she shared an article from the Financial Times reporting about how she was pushing for the restrictions.
The remarks immediately prompted strong criticism from homeless charities and opposition MPs.
On Monday, Rishi Sunak said people should not be criminalised for having nowhere to live but declined to rule out a restriction on tents for homeless people would be introduced as part of the Criminal Justice Bill.
Speaking during business questions, shadow Commons Leader Lucy Powell said: “The Prime Minister is too weak to stand up to his Home Secretary who wants to criminalise giving homeless people tents because she thinks it’s a lifestyle choice. Despicable. We all know what she’s up to.”
In relation to “the specifics that she raises on tents”, Ms Mordaunt replied: “The Home Secretary has no plans to ban Millets.
“We are not doing that.
“This Government has made the largest investment ever in tackling homelessness and rough sleeping.
“£2 billion to accelerate its mitigation and prevention, including preventing 640,000 people in the last five years from becoming homeless.”
Millets is a UK retailer of outdoor clothing, footwear and equipment and has a wide selection of tents.
Ms Powell also criticised the King’s Speech, arguing the Government’s legislative programme is “so thin, it’s embarrassing”.
She added: “Of the few bills announced, five are carry overs, four barely longer than a page, three we’ve seen before and a flagship crime bill that’s already been shelved.
“Despite the big issues facing our country, their answers are so small.
“Nothing to tackle the cost-of-living crisis, just a Prime Minister deluded that everything is going great…”
Ms Mordaunt replied: “I would just point out to her that between 1997 and 2010, 13 parliamentary sessions, there were only two sessions that put through more bills than we passed in the last parliamentary session.
“And in the last sessions of Labour administrations, the average number of bills brought forward were 21.”
Speaking during the King’s Speech debate later on, Bob Blackman, Conservative MP for Harrow East and co-chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on ending homelessness, said: “Let’s be very clear – homelessness is not a lifestyle choice.
“Every case of homelessness and rough sleeping is unique and all those individuals who unfortunately are forced in a position to sleep rough on our streets need help, they need to be sought out and given an opportunity to rebuild their lives.”
He noted “our language on these things is vitally important”, adding: “We must not stigmatise people for being homeless. They need to be helped and assisted.”
