Kevin Hollinrake, the Tory chairman, told the Mail on Sunday: “Labour have once again been caught red-handed displaying their spiteful class-war hypocrisy.
“They are gutting the very same right-to-buy scheme that Bridget Phillipson and Angela Rayner benefited from, pulling up the drawbridge after taking advantage themselves. As ever with Labour, it’s one rule for them and another for everyone else.”
Ms Phillipson has often discussed her working-class upbringing, describing how she “grew up on a tough street of council houses” with just her mother.
She found it hard to raise her single-handedly and a neighbour who saw them struggling once gave her mother money to help buy a coat for her, Ms Phillipson recalled.
It “wasn’t a desirable place to live” and the houses themselves were “in pretty poor condition”, she said, with no upstairs heating.
But by the time it went on the market in 2023, an estate agent described it as a “delightful” property in a “lovely Victorian terrace” with off-road parking to the rear and a feature fireplace.
Ms Phillipson referred to her roots again during the spat with Mrs Badenoch last week, writing on social media: “I wonder what it is about a working-class woman driving record investment in state schools by ending private schools’ tax breaks that the Tories hate so much?”
Despite the benefits she has apparently received from the right-to-buy scheme, the Education Secretary has said of its architect: “I have never pined for anything associated with Margaret Thatcher. How could I, given the damage she caused?”
Discount to be cut
Ms Rayner announced plans to restrict the scheme in 2024. The changes will include cutting the discount from the current 35 per cent to between five and 15 per cent, depending on how long the tenant has lived in the property.
To be eligible the tenant must have lived in the council house for 10 years – up from the current three – and new-builds will be exempt from the scheme for 35 years.
Labour has said that the changes are necessary to increase the stock of social housing and is expecting them to reduce sales by around 90 per cent.
A spokesman for Ms Phillipson said: “The nasty party is back and this time it’s on steroids. The Conservatives’ vile smear campaign against yet another northern working-class woman tells you everything you need to know: they hate working-class people that do well.
“Like their electoral bedfellows Reform, they have nothing to offer this country but rancour and division.
“No amount of smears or hateful personal attacks is going to stop Bridget Phillipson delivering better life chances for working class families denied opportunity by 14 years of Tory austerity.”
