The home secretary, Suella Braverman, has described rough sleeping as a “lifestyle choice” while defending her decision to restrict the use of tents by homeless people on the streets of Britain.

According to Whitehall insiders, Braverman plans to crack down on tents that cause a nuisance in urban areas such as high streets – amid growing numbers of rough sleepers and what the government considers a rise in antisocial behaviour.

The home secretary has also proposed the introduction of a civil offence, which could lead to charities being fined if they provide homeless people with tents, the Financial Times reported.

Writing on X, formerly Twitter, Braverman defended her proposals, saying: “The British people are compassionate. We will always support those who are genuinely homeless. But we cannot allow our streets to be taken over by rows of tents occupied by people, many of them from abroad, living on the streets as a lifestyle choice.

“Unless we step in now to stop this, British cities will go the way of places in the US like San Francisco and Los Angeles, where weak policies have led to an explosion of crime, drug-taking, and squalor.

  • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
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    1 year ago

    Just in case anyone is concerned, Bretherman is insane and has absolutely no idea or indeed any interest in what the “British people” want. And her and her useless excuse for a government are just biding their time until they get unceremoniously kicked out of office.

    She has repeatedly claimed that “the people” are interested in immigration despite the fact that polling data shows that most people couldn’t give a flying rats backside about immigration.

    The only people who care about immigration are the sort of people who get upset if somebody with slightly different coloured skin walks past them in the street. Or they hear previously unknown language that they suspect might be foreign or possibly Welsh. I.e morons

    • gmtom@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Unfortunately for everyone large swaths of the British public support her and her insane racist bullshit and will no doubt support this because they are lead poisoned narcissistic scum