EXschCLUSIVE

From Schnews this week, with a resolutely misspelt Mike Weatherley sporting a Pinocchio nose…

Mike Weatherly, the Tory MP for Hove & Portslade – architect of the squatting bill (see SchNEWS 794) – has spent much of his first 18 months in power attacking the homeless in his own constituency under the guise of a crackdown on ‘lifestyle squatters’. For the most part his campaign has been dominated by a collection of factually inaccurate soundbites. His ‘facts’ about squatting have been repeatedly rebutted (including in an open letter from 160 lawyers – see SchNEWS 791) but Mike soldiers on.

One argument Mr ‘Fair’ Weatherly has used to deflect criticism of his anti-squatting campaign has been the supposed support from numerous homeless charities. Funny then, that most of these charities publicly opposed the criminalisation of squatting and said as much in the government’s own consultation on the issue. Confused by this apparently contradictory stance, one of Mike’s constituents emailed him to ask “You claim homeless charities support the criminalisation of homelessness, Crisis, Shelter, St Mungos and more don’t – which do?”

Mike could only come up with one: Off The Fence, a Hove based charity and, according to the MP, “We have had many long discussions about homelessness and how the Council, and the government, could do better. But they agree with me that lifestyle squatters are not homeless persons in the main.”

Well, it’s perhaps not that surprising that, if you try hard enough, you’ll find one charity to back your argument up, but our intrepid citizen journalist was, for some reason, less than convinced by multiple liar Mike Weatherly’s reply and contacted Off The Fence himself. Explaining his discussions with the MP he asked to be told, “What Off The Fence’s position on squatting is?”

The response was not entirely supportive of Mikey boy’s position.

Firstly Paul Young, CEO of Off the Fence, stated that “Mike Weatherley has never talked to me or the Trustees about squatting. 1 million empty houses in UK is criminal. Anyone saying that Off the Fence’s position is to criminalise squatting would be wrong”. He then clarified Off The Fence’s official position as: “In regards to squatting, the only criminal element is properties that are left empty, while people are freezing to death on the streets of this City”.

Well Mr Weatherly, SchNEWS believes that burning smell may be emanating from your Marks&Spencer’s Y-fronts.