Why are Labour MPs blocking housing developments when their Leader is pledging to build more? - Yorkshire Post Letters

How can Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer, fulfil his party's pledge to build more affordable houses when his Shadow Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper, MP for Normanton, Pontefract and Castleford, is blocking a proposed housing development with 40 affordable houses at Altofts in West Yorkshire.

Yvette Cooper's reason for rejecting this housing development was it will threaten the 'village status' which in my view is a pathetic excuse, as all towns today, whether they are small or large, started off as a small settlement or hamlet and when bigger a village.

As people moved from working on the farms to working in factories and mills in Yorkshire, towns expanded as the owners demanded long hours and the workers needed to be near their place of work.

Many in the five towns of Normanton, Pontefract, Castleford, Darrington and Knottingly still think that she betrayed them by voting to remain in the EU when nearly 70 per cent voted to leave.

An MP should go with the majority of their constituents' votes when representing them in Parliament, and not what the individual MP's beliefs are, or by 'towing the party whip' in order to get a vote through.

For this reason Yvette Cooper should, if she doesn't agree with the majority of her constituents, stand down as MP for Normanton, Pontefract and Castleford.

Over in Greater Manchester the MP for Salford and Eccles, Rebecca Long- Bailey has blocked the building of 600 affordable homes in her constituency.

Labour are talking about reforming out of date planning laws, but first they need to get the majority of their own MPs committing to building affordable homes in their constituencies so that more, especially the young, can get on the housing ladder.