Boris Johnson must put his mind to fixing the hideous housing crisis to win over young Corbynistas
Win 'em back
BORIS Johnson might have a stonking majority, but his party has a lethal young person problem.
Alarming data reveals that, if the vote were confined to 18 to 24-year-olds, Comrade Corbyn’s Labour would have hoovered up 544 seats in the election.
To win back the lost generation, the PM must turn his mind immediately to fixing the hideous housing crisis.
Of course, the priority must be a mega building spree. But there are quick fixes which would go a long way too.
Despite house price rises, a new report from a respected think-tank shows that home ownership would still be as affordable for today’s first-time buyers as in 2009 if the rules on 95 per cent mortgages had not been made so tight they now exclude so many borrowers.
It means that if Boris gave 3.6million resentful renters a helping hand getting a deposit, he could single-handedly unlock the housing market to a generation of aspirational hard grafters.
REAP THE REWARDS
It would be tough: the 95 per cent mortgage was abandoned because owners kept defaulting.
But new long-term fixed rate deals could solve that.
And we have no doubt the Tories would reap the rewards at the ballot box.
Young Corbynistas fancy themselves as socialists now. But put affordable homes within their grasp and they’d soon see on which side their bread is buttered.
Jacob cracker
THREE cheers to the heroic new Tory MP for Redcar, Jacob Young.
The ex-chemical plant worker has volunteered to work the 12-hour holiday shifts he was down for to save his mates from being dragged in over Christmas.
This humble 26-year-old has a hell of a lot to teach his more experienced parliamentary colleagues.
Rebecca Long-Bailey — the Labour leader wannabe who’s been caught out telling shameless porkies about the struggles she went through growing up — should listen particularly carefully.
Middle-class politicians whining about how tough they once had it might win over a few gullible students.
But if Labour MPs want to earn back the respect of working-class Northerners they cast aside to drool over Corbyn, it’s time to take a leaf out of Jacob Young’s book.
About crime
WHAT a refreshing change new Speaker Lindsay Hoyle makes from the sanctimonious toad who preceded him.
MOST READ IN OPINION
He has overruled John Bercow and confirmed that he will allow Big Ben to bong for Brexit on January 31.
After three long, painful years, the day when Britain finally breaks free from the EU will be truly momentous.
And marking it with Big Ben’s bongs seems a fitting way to usher an independent UK into the roaring ’20s.
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