Laila Cunningham was left unable to properly outline Reform UK’s social housing plans during a segment on GB News.
This week, Reform announced it would prioritise British-born workers under 35 when allocating social housing if it were to get into power.
The party would also prioritise former military service personnel and married couples with children for social housing.
This comes off the back of Reform’s pledge to evict all foreign nationals from social housing.
But the plans have come under fire over the fact they would seemingly make it more difficult for single parents and pensioners to access social housing.
On Tuesday evening, Reform’s Laila Cunningham appeared on GB News where she was asked about the policy by journalist Dan Hodges.
Reacting to comments from Richard Tice where he had suggested married couples with children would be prioritised for social housing, Cunningham claimed her party’s deputy leader had been “misunderstood.”
Hodges pushed back on this, saying that Reform’s policy would “by definition penalise pensioners and single parents.”
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After Cunningham denied this and said vulnerable people “would always go to the top of the list”, a somewhat confused Hodges asked for some clarity, given that that is not what the policy says.
As Reform’s London mayoral candidate continued to give conflicting answers, Hodges asked: “What is the policy? Are you prioritising married couples over single parents or are you not? Are you prioritising young people over pensioners or not?”
Cunningham responded: “Families with children will always go to the top, that is a vulnerability when you have a child.”
Hodges put it to Cunningham then that she was directly contradicting Tice’s words, saying: “This is the problem, Reform announces a policy and within ten minutes the whole policy falls apart. I’m just trying to find out what your policy is!”
You might not be surprised to hear that Cunningham’s answers failed to clear things up as Hodges continued to present the facts of her own party’s policy to her.
Responding to a post about the exchange, Hodges later wrote on X that he had some sympathy for Cunningham who had been “saddled” with having to defend and explain the “kryptonite” policy.
He wrote: “Laila getting a lot of criticism following our debate yesterday. But I’m not entirely sure what she was supposed to say. That’s the policy she’s been saddled with. And in London it will be electoral Kryptonite.”