Nadhim Zahawi blames Sadiq Khan for homelessness… no, really

  • Post last modified:September 5, 2024
  • Reading time:12 mins read


This week, former Conservative Party MP Nadhim Zahawi took to X to display his faux outrage over a problem his own government created: homelessness. He tweeted a photo of a person sleeping rough on a street in Mayfair – one of the richest parts of London.

Nadhim Zahawi: anyone but the Tories’ fault

Obviously he failed to mention that it was his party creating the cruel policies which have forced thousands more people into homelessness; all in the name of making a dig at the Labour Party mayor of London, Sadiq Khan:

During 14 years of Tory rule, homelessness figures more than doubled. According to Shelter, over 280,000 people are currently experiencing homelessness.

The Tories set a target of ending rough sleeping by 2024 – which is only the most visible form of homelessness.

However, figures rose by over 25% in the last year alone. The annual rough sleeping snapshot found that on a single night, an estimated 3,898 people were sleeping on the streets. This compared to 3,069 a year before.

Political point scoring

It seems that over his years in government, Nadhim Zahawi visited several homelessness charities. It’s a shame he didn’t learn anything from those visits or see enough to actually vote on changing cruel policies:

Consistently, Zahawi has voted for reductions in spending on welfare benefits – including to disability benefits. He has also voted for a stricter asylum system, phasing out secure tenancies, and overall, higher taxation rates. All of these lead to higher levels of homelessness:

Specsavers, anyone?

Clearly, Nadhim Zahawi only cares about homelessness when it spills into his rich little bubble. Which happens to be so far removed from reality – because in other areas of London, such as Westminster where funnily enough Zahawi should have spent a lot of time – the problem is visible for anyone with eyes to see:

From his visits to homelessness charities over the years, Zahawi should also have known that taking photos of people experiencing homelessness without their consent is not ok. First of all, it puts whoever is in that photo at risk:

However, more than that it adds to the stigmatising discourse that surrounds homelessness.

Many charities, including the Centre for Homelessness Impact are working towards challenging negative representations of people experiencing homelessness. Part of their work is using real images of various types of homelessness, but with full consent – which is often not the case.

If Zahawi’s shameless point-scoring piccie, putting a person experiencing homelessness at risk wasn’t bad enough, someone on X noted that he chose to take that photo, rather than offer help:

Nadhim Zahawi: Tory profiteering

Nadhim Zahawi’s astonishing levels of cognitive dissonance were also plain to see, given his disgusting profiteering when he was in government:

This is from the same millionaire who claimed thousands in tax-payer expenses to heat his stables at his second home. I’m sure the country will breathe a deep sigh of relief when they realise Zahawi’s horses are warm enough:

It is beyond belief that a literal millionaire has the cheek to call out Sadiq Khan for fourteen years of Tory policies.

Added to that, doing it in such a dehumanising way with zero regard for the person in the photo for cheap political point scoring is profoundly worse.

However, its unfortunately not surprising from a heartless former Tory MP who has profited off of years of oppressing marginalised communities in the very same way.

He had made it clear this is not about homelessness. This is about it spilling over into his cushty little neighbourhood and ruining the pretty pavement.

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