Fellow Tory says Cameron wages Kosovo-style war against the poor

From daily The Independent in Britain:

Boris Johnson under fire for ‘Kosovo cleansing‘ comments

PA

Friday, 29 October 2010

Boris Johnson faced calls to apologise for “appalling” comments about housing benefit reforms today after London’s mayor dramatically stoked political controversy over welfare cuts.

The outspoken Tory tried to calm anger at Number 10 yesterday, claiming his vow not to accept “Kosovo-style social cleansing” in the capital had been taken out of context. …

Mr Johnson’s intervention increased pressure on the Prime Minister, who is already facing opposition from Tory and Liberal Democrat backbenchers over the housing benefit shake-up.

There are claims that around 200,000 people could be driven out of areas with high rents as a result of the drive to reduce the cost of housing subsidies.

The mayor said he was in “detailed negotiations” with Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith about the proposals and said he would “emphatically resist” any such exodus.

“What we will not see and we will not accept is 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,” he declared.

The comments drew a rare public rebuke from Number 10, which said David Cameron “doesn’t agree with what Boris Johnson has said or indeed the way he said it”.

See also here.

The cuts in Housing Benefit proposed by the British Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition will lead to the eviction of huge numbers of people from their homes in London and elsewhere in the south-east of England: here.

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