Julie Redmond with voter Dave Bennett in Somers Town

A TORY election hopeful has sought to distance herself from the home secretary’s description of homelessness as a “lifestyle choice”.

Julie Redmond, the Conservatives candidate in Barnet and Camden at next May’s London elections, said she was “shocked” to read the home secretary Suella Braverman’s des­cription of rough sleeping as a “lifestyle choice” for some people.

Ms Braverman has also reportedly suggested a new civil offence that could result in outreach charities being fined should they provide homeless people with tents for shelter.

The suggestions were made by Ms Braverman as part of a bid for inclusion in Tuesday’s King’s Speech, which set out Rishi Sunak’s policy priorities ahead of next year’s general election. “I have to be true to myself, and I can’t agree with certain things,”

Julie Redmond told the New Journal this week. “I have to say I was quite shocked. Maybe I’m not privy to what’s going on in the background, the reasons for these comments… but depriving somebody of some warmth and shelter, I don’t think that’s right.

“I don’t know, I could get told I can’t stand [for election] by saying [this], but I can’t agree with them. The Conservative Party might actually say, ‘Julie, you’ve just gone against government’.”

But she added: “I don’t think it is a lifestyle choice… times are harder now, with the cost of living, the cost of food increasing.” “I’ve seen along the Euston Road, people are on mattresses around the Regent’s Park estates where you have overhang from the buildings, you have people sheltering underneath in tents from the rain. Obviously the weather recently has not been good.”

Ms Redmond said she has worked with homelessness charities in the past, and performed outreach that involved handing out tents and sleeping bags.

“It made a difference to a lot of people,” she said. Ms Redmond, who has worked as an A&E nurse in the past, said: “I can assure you now, people living or sleeping on the streets – it’s not by choice. A lot of them actually come into the A&E departments for some warmth.

“You know yourself, walking by these people, as they say in Ireland, ‘the poor devils’ – they’re not wanting to be there.” She said she believed homelessness is the result of a range of complex factors, from insecure immigration status and to escaping abuse.

“The one thing that unites them all is they don’t have any information as to what’s next and how they access services that might be available to them,” said Ms Redmond.

“Statements are being made, like recent ones, where people are saying ‘it’s a lifestyle choice, we need to remove tents’, then there needs to be structure in place to provide people with accommodation of some kind… then we need structure in place to guide them and help them in the right direction.”

Suella Braverman [Home Office]

Ms Braverman wrote on X, formerly Twitter: “Nobody in Britain should be living in a tent on our streets. There are options for people who don’t want to be sleeping rough, and the government is working with local authorities to strengthen wraparound support including treatment for those with drug and alcohol addiction…

“What I want to stop, and what the law abiding majority wants us to stop, is those who cause nuisance and distress to other people by pitching tents in public spaces, aggressively begging, stealing, taking drugs, littering, and blighting our communities.”

Labour has won in Barnet and Camden three times in a row and hold the seat at the London Assembly with Anne Clarke – who is standing again in May.

‘We won’t stop giving out tents’

A HOMELESSNESS charity has vowed to continue handing out tents even if the practice were criminalised.

Streets Kitchen has rejected Suella Braverman’s description of homelessness as a “lifestyle choice” – rhetoric paired with proposals to fine charities who give tents to the homeless.

The organisation, a group that runs mobile food outreach across Islington and Camden, have made an ongoing pledge to give out tents to rough sleepers when they have them. In the last week, the group gave out 20 “shelter suits” to rough sleepers. “If we had more we would give out more,” said volunteer Elodie Berland, adding: “Bring it on.” The last count, conducted over spring and summer of this year, showed a total of 279 people sleeping on Camden’s streets.

Ms Berland warned these figures are inaccurate, and serve only to give a “rough idea” of the extent of homelessness in the borough. Ms Berland said Streets Kitchen is providing more food than they were this time last year. She said: “It’s getting worse and worse.”

She added: “We’re going to stand up, we’re going to carry on. It’s palliative care that we’re doing at the moment, and tents, if anything, save lives. They save lives.”

She said of Ms Braverman’s comments: “How can it be a lifestyle choice? She needs to come on outreach. She needs to get out there and see exactly what’s going on. We see people in terrible conditions, and it’s completely heartbreaking.”

Ms Berland knows of people living in a broken tent who are already being pressured to “move on” from their current location.

“It’s the only thing that keeps them a little bit safe. They said ‘if we have to move, even if it’s just to the next place, the tent is going to break down.’” Even without a new civil offence, Ms Berland said homeless people are “already having their belongings taken away by CPOs [Community Protection Orders]”.

Ms Braverman had pitched the proposals for inclusion in the King’s Speech, delivered on Tuesday, which sets out the government’s legislative agenda for the coming year.

But the ensuing row over Ms Braverman’s comments means the government yesterday (Wednesday) delayed publishing its draft criminal justice bill while ministers consider the home secretary’s proposals.

Ms Berland said of Ms Braverman’s comments: “It’s almost like she’s making it more visible, she’s voicing it out. But it’s criminalisation [of homelessness]. It doesn’t make any sense at all.”