Rishi Sunak is ‘blancmange’ PM who sold out aspiring homeowners, says Starmer

Sir Keir Starmer has accused Rishi Sunak of being a “blancmange” prime minister who “wobbled” over a Tory backbench revolt on mandatory housebuilding targets.

The Labour leader said the PM had “sold out” aspiring homeowners after the government watered down local targets to avoid an embarrassing Commons rebellion.

Sir Keir used PMQs to question why Mr Sunak would rather “cripple housebuilding” than accept Labour support to get more homes built.

“His backbenchers threatened him, and as always the blancmange PM wobbled,” he said. “He did a grubby deal with a handful of his MPs and sold out the aspirations of those who want to own their own home.”

Sir Keir told the Commons: “The former housing secretary [Sajid Javid] on their side said scrapping mandatory targets ... would be colossal failure of political leadership – no wonder he doesn’t want to fight the next election.”

Mr Sunak responded: “We’re not going to work with Labour on housing … The Labour party talks, the Conservatives deliver.”

The PM said the government’s now-revised Levelling up and Regeneration Bill would both protect the greenbelt and provide “protection for local neighbourhood plans”.

The U-turn would make the target of building 300,000 homes a year in England advisory rather than mandatory, with councils able to build fewer if they prove the density would “significantly change the character” of their area.

It comes as MPs said the Sunak government is unlikely to meet its housebuilding targets, falling short by 32,000 homes from its original 2016 and 2021 goals for affordable homes.

The Public Accounts Committee also criticised that not enough socially-rented homes are being constructed to help ease the national housing crisis.

MPs on the committee also noted that there is no formal target for how many of the 300,000 overall new homes a year – a goal set out in the 2019 Conservative manifesto – should be affordable.

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