Tory MP claims sleeping rough is “a lot more comfortable” than military exercises
During a parliamentary debate he led on street homelessness, Adam Holloway suggested able-bodied people could “make quite a lot of money from begging on the streets of London”.
“We have to accept that some people are able to sleep rough in our cities because there are the resources to do so,” said the MP for Gravesham, Kent.
The Brexit supporter also attributed rising levels of homelessness to eastern European immigration, arguing “some migrants sleep on the streets by choice, preferring to sleep rough than to pay for accommodation”.
The MP said on a recent visit to a soup kitchen he “wandered about while shawls and brand-new trainers were handed out, and I honestly did not hear English being spoken by anyone. I heard east European languages. I heard Arabic. And I heard Italian.”
Mr Holloway told MPs he spent seven nights on the streets during the February recess for a TV documentary on rough-sleeping. “If someone is fit and of sound mind, there are all sorts of services, although not quite 24 hours a day, that make it possible to sleep out,” he said. “I am 52 years old and I was in the army; to be honest, sleeping rough in central London is a lot more comfortable than going on exercise when I was in the army.”
This is in sharp contrast to the reality found by research that deaths of rough sleepers with mental health problems have risen sharply over the last seven years, prompting concern that specialist services are not reaching those who need them. The research, conducted by the homeless charity St Mungo’s, shows that four out of five (80%) rough sleepers who died in London in 2017 had mental health needs, an increase from three in 10 (29%) in 2010.
The charity is calling on the prime minister to take urgent action to prevent more people dying on the streets and ensure that no death goes ignored. “This is a scandal and something the government needs to recognise and do more about … there should be more funds and support for these groups but instead they have been cut over the years and that correlates in these people stuck living on the streets … these deaths are preventable,” said Petra Salva, director of St Mungo’s rough sleeping services.
Ms Salva added: “The rise is because rough sleepers with mental health support needs end up sleeping rough and the help isn’t there and when it is there it is not quick enough … access to help and support is getting harder and so the prevalence of death … is increasing.” The charity called on the government to invest more in specialist support, saying that with NHS services “severely overstretched” this could sometimes be overlooked.
Labour MP Melanie Onn, the shadow-housing minister, said Mr Holloway’s comments about immigrants did not reflect UK-wide homelessness. According to government figures, 16 per cent of rough sleepers across England are EU nationals from outside of the UK, and 4 per cent are from outside of the EU.
The number of people sleeping rough has risen by 169% since the Tories came to power in 2010, research by charity Homeless Link revealed, while beds in homeless shelters have fallen by a fifth in the same period.
