Join the Secret Elves to discover the best shopping deals and things to do this Christmas Spread the Christmas cheer! Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Invalid Email

Theresa May channelled Ebenezer Scrooge today - suggesting people shouldn't worry that 2,500 children will be homeless in a London borough this Christmas, because not all of them will be sleeping on the streets.

And she repeated a brazenly misleading statistic in a bid to defend her government's record on homelessness.

Dr Rosena Allin-Khan, who represents Tooting in South London, told the House of Commons that thousands of youngsters will not have a home to wake up in on Christmas day .

The Labour MP said the Prime Minister had failed in her commitment to halt the rise of child poverty.

Dr Allin-Khan told the House of Commons: "In 2009 the Prime Minister said it was a tragedy that the number of children falling into the poverty cycle was continuing to rise.

In a passionate speech she continued: "Every child deserves to have a roof over their head and food on the table yet on her watch in Wandsworth alone the number of families forced to survive on food banks is continuing to rise and 2,500 children, yes children will wake up homeless on Christmas Day."

There were jeers from the Tory benches as the Labour MP made her heartfelt contribution.

But Dr Allin-Khan persevered asking: "When will this austerity-driven government say 'enough is enough' and put an end to this tragedy?"



The PM hit back insisting her government had taken hundreds of thousands of children out of absolute poverty.

The exchange came as a report from MPs found that the government has been "unacceptably complacent" about the "national crisis" of homelessness.

As of June this year, there were 78,180 households in England – including more than 120,000 children who had been placed in temporary accommodation which is often cramped and poor quality.

While frigures show there were 4 million children living in poverty in the UK in 2015-16 which equates to 30%.

Shockingly, Mrs May accused the Tooting MP of misleading the public because those children would not be sleeping rough - despite not having a proper and safe home to sleep in.

Mrs May said: "She talks of 2,500 children waking up homeless on Christmas Day, anyone hearing that will think it means 2,500 children sleeping on our streets. It does not mean that.

"As we all know families with children who are accepted as homeless will be provided with accomodation."

She went on to claim that statutory homelessness is at a lower level now than it was for "most of the last Labour government."

While that is true, strictly speaking - it is grossly misleading.

Statutory homelessness reached a peak under Labour - but fell during the years the party was in power.

Since 2010, when the coalition took power, the number of statutory homeless has increased every year - from 10,100 in April-June 2010 to 14,400 in the same period of 2017.

"statutory homelessness" only covers people found to be both unintentionally homeless and in priority need.

It is not the full picture of homelessness, and other official statistics are a lot less rosy for the Tory government.

There were 78,180 households in temporary accommodation on 30 June 2017 - up an eye-watering 63% since the low of 48,010 on 31 December 2010.

On top of all that, a snapshot measure by the government shows England had 4,134 rough sleepers in autumn 2016 - more than double the 1,768 in 2010 and up every single year.

National homelessness charity Crisis has released a Christmas charity single - a new version of Streets of London, featuring Annie Lennox - in a bid to raise awareness of homelessness in the festive period.

Proceeds from the single go to fund the work they do helping thousands out of homelessness every year.

Ms Allin-Khan she was "disappointed that the PM continues to turn a blind eye to the issue. On Christmas Day, when children should be feeling safe and secure in their own homes, there will be over 2500 homeless children in Wandsworth, forced to live on sofas, emergency accommodation and hostels.

"The PM tried to add spin to a very tragic issue but refuses to accept the problem."