The prime minister will convene his cabinet today amid mounting criticism within his own party over housing policy.
Former levelling up secretary Simon Clarke told Radio 4’s Today programme that young people trying to get on the housing ladder would desert the Conservatives, unless the party stops trying to “pander to the public’s worst possible instincts” and “out-nimby” the Liberal Democrats and the Greens.
He said the government’s policy on housebuilding needs to change “as a matter of urgency” after the party lost more than 1,000 seats in last week’s local elections.
But other leading Tories took a different message from the losses. Theresa Villiers, MP for Chipping Barnet near London, said: “These elections show how much people care about protecting their local environment from overdevelopment.”
