A single mum has urged Keir Starmer to “do what Tony Blair did” for working people and give her teenage son “a good life” in an impassioned on air plea.
Jennifer, from Great Barr in Birmingham, rang in to Nicky Campbell’s BBC Radio 5 Live phone-in show this morning as the Labour leader took questions live from members of the public just seven days before the General Election. She began the call by telling him of her struggles in trying to buy her home from her housing association, which she wanted to have in the family so that her 18-year-old son would “not repeat” the pattern that first saw her end up in social housing.
She explained: “I’ve lived in a housing association property for 17 years, and I’ve worked really hard to progress in employment. I’m a single parent with one child, and I wanted to acquire my housing association property because I get a really good discount, which means I’d be able to afford the mortgage repayments and own this home that I live in.” But she said she was told she can’t buy the property “because it was built before 1997 and it doesn’t fit the criteria”, leaving her stuck.
Jennifer asked Mr Starmer: “How are you going to help me get on the housing ladder?” After detailing Labour’s plans for housebuilding and reforms to the private rented sector, Mr Starmer said: “I want in the meantime, Jennifer, to ensure we keep rents down. I think for housing associations, as well, we do need to make sure that yourself and others can actually make that first step.”
The mum then urged the Labour leader to usher in the kind of change that helped her family during Labour’s last period in Government, and said: “I want the Labour party now to do what Tony Blair did for me back in 2005. He set me up perfectly for my son to have a good life”. He replied: “You touch on something which is very important to me, which is this sense of aspiration. I actually call it working class aspiration, which is wanting to get on for yourself and your family, to get that secure job which provides that basic stability, or basecamp if you like, which people need to build their lives on.”
In another part of the phone-in, an overworked teacher asked for a plan to stop a “tsunami” of staff leaving the profession as Keir Starmer made a key promise to her. Primary school teacher Jen, a caller on BBC 5 Live, pressed the Labour leader on how he was going to stop staff leaving in their droves in the education sector. Mr Starmer pledged to put in place a teacher “retention scheme” that would especially target people in their mid 30s who are considering leaving their jobs. Labour has made it a key manifesto pledge to bring in 6,500 teachers.