Bridget Phillipson accuses Tories of ‘manufactured smear’ over sale of mother’s council house
The education secretary has accused the Conservatives of a “made-up smear” after his family was criticized for profits from the sale of his mother’s council house.
At the weekend, it was reported that the sale of Bridget Phillipson’s childhood home had netted a profit of £90,000; The Conservatives accused senior Labor figures of “lifting the drawbridge” through restrictions on the Right to Buy scheme after many Labor politicians took advantage of it.
mail on sunday In 1990, when Ms Phillipson was six, her mother Clare bought their two-bedroom council house in Washington, Tyne and Wear, for £9,600 under the Right to Buy scheme introduced by the Conservatives.
At this stage the price represented a 38 per cent discount on the market value of £15,490.
The house remained in the family’s ownership until it sold for £99,950 in May 2023, which the newspaper described as a “profit of more than 900 per cent”. However, inflation significantly reduces real term earnings. According to the Bank of England’s official inflation calculator, £99,950 in 2023 is equivalent to around £42,200 in 1990.
Tory leader Kevin Hollinrake said: mail on sunday: “Workers have once again been caught red-handed, displaying the spiteful hypocrisy of class war.
“They’re gutting the same right to buy scheme that Bridget Phillipson and Angela Rayner benefited from, removing the drawbridge after they’ve benefited from it themselves. As always for Labour, it’s one rule for them, another rule for everyone else.”
As their ongoing feud escalated, Ms Phillipson lashed out at Kemi Badenoch’s party, saying: “I think if you’re bringing people’s families into the party [in] That way, you lose the argument.”
He told Times Radio: “I think this is a continuation of the nonsense we’ve seen in the Conservative Party in recent days. It’s a manufactured smear against my family.”
“It’s kind of ridiculous and it’s just a very personalized attack. I mean, the numbers and the way they’re presented aren’t exactly accurate. But by the way. Really, I think if you get people’s families involved as well [in] That way, you lose the argument.”
He added that his mother “bought this house to provide a better life for me and our family, and that is what families in our country will always strive to do.”
“The house was in a terrible state. There was no possibility of any improvement in our living conditions unless he made the decision to buy our house because of the constant failure to invest in it. We did not have a proper centralized system.” [heating]“We had no heating upstairs, our windows were rotten.”
The row marks a new escalation in the fight between Ms Badenoch and the education secretary.
They clashed in parliament last week when the opposition leader launched a scathing attack on Ms Phillipson, branding her a “vindictive class warrior” over her decision to introduce VAT on private school fees.
Ms Badenoch was reprimanded in parliament for her language but tensions later escalated and Ms Phillipson promised to have the phrase printed on a T-shirt.
