Tonight I volunteered in the Winter Homeless Shelter with warm kind colleagues welcoming our homeless in a warm space with dinner ... a lovely group from far and wide ... and we talked, had dinner and played chess. I learned about how hard life can be without a roof over. I learned about travelling through four countries to reach a safe place , I learned about war and gangs - survival, risking everything and leaving family behind after your home has been bombed to rubble - and still calling mum every day .
I got in the car at midnight to come home and heard the small boats debate on the radio.
Earlier tonight I called the by-elections voters and talked to many people disillusioned about illegal immigration and the impact of small boats on communities, telling me they wanted to vote Reform .
To the voters who voted Reform, you want to have your say and fairness is the problem to solve. Reform rhetoric is easy talk when you don't actually deal with the front line. A vote for Reform is a Vote for Labour.
After a double by-election defeat Rishi Sunak said,
"A vote for anyone who isn’t the Conservative candidate, whether that’s Reform or anyone else, is just a vote to put Keir Starmer in power."
The ONLY way forward is a deterrent . It's got to be better to stay than to leave or to make a journey that risks lives - and France do not make it comfortable - despite also being a member of ECHR, French hospitality is a mud camp . Stick with the PMs plan because however difficult to implement, and it is incredibly difficult to implement , the alternatives don't work either and Labour have no plan and would take us back into the EU arrangement which would be worse . So resolution to back the deterrent, modelled on the Australian third country deterrent destination deal is the only solution which will work.
Hold the faith . Hold on to your conservatives values . No one accepts homelessness . If it can be sorted out it will be.
During Covid Lockdown the Conservative government managed to get 'Everyone In'. Literally everyone was given a safe space paid for by the government . It was an incredible achievement not much talked about . Most were housed, supported, helped back into living solutions, claims processed . The Left love to point at homelessness as a consequence of Conservative policy but the truth is actually an incredibly positive story which they will never offer credit for. Everyone In and Ending Rough Sleeping for Good is an incredible initiative and intention . And the work that charities do is a lifesaver .
https://www.gov.uk/.../pub.../ending-rough-sleeping-for-good
