Plan B Forum

Furious Tories last night demanded the UN apologise for allowing a ‘loopy Brazilian leftie’ to attack the Government’s welfare reforms.

Iain Duncan Smith said Raquel Rolnik had undermined the impartiality of the UN with her ‘outrageous’ call for his housing benefit shake-up to be axed. The Work and Pensions Secretary wants UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon to investigate the senior official’s conduct. He said she had not asked ministers or officials for their input, adding: ‘I find it staggering that without this official information Mrs Rolnik feels she is in a position to be able to properly prescribe what the future of the policy should be.’

Tory MP Stewart Jackson said Miss Rolnick was a ‘loopy Brazilian leftie with no evidence masquerading as a serious UN official’.

Senior UN officials have an open door to visit the UK but no specific invitation was extended to Mrs Rolnick.
She attended only one Whitehall meeting where the spare room subsidy was among the issues discussed and, according to officials, requested no further information. The courts have ruled in favour of the housing benefit reform, which cuts payments to working-age claimants with more bedrooms than they need. However, briefing left-wing newspapers about her report, Miss Rolnik said: ‘My immediate recommendation is that the bedroom tax is abolished.

'I was very shocked to hear how many people feel abused in their human rights by this decision and why – being so vulnerable – they should pay for the cost of the economic downturn, which was brought about by the financial crisis.

In her two-week tour Mrs Rolnik, who is the UN special rapporteur on housing, repeatedly borrowed Labour’s favoured description of the policy as a bedroom tax and appeared with campaigners at protest rallies. She also suggested the idea of rent controls in the private sector, condemned the right-to-buy policy on council homes and insisted more public money should be spent on building social housing.

Mrs Rolnik revealed a shaky grasp of UK house prices by saying: ‘How many people can afford to buy a £120,000 apartment? Not many.’

Senior Conservatives and Liberal Democrats condemned her intervention, pointing out that the UN more usually provides help in war zones, famines and natural disasters. They also pointed out that in Brazil, where Mrs Rolnik was in charge of housing policy, tens of millions of people are condemned to living in shanty towns, or favelas.

Iain Duncan Smith said Raquel Rolnik had undermined the impartiality of the UN with her 'outrageous' call for his housing benefit shake-up to be axed Mr Duncan Smith said: ‘Britain has a very strong housing safety net and we will continue to offer this valuable support, but also begin to get to grips with the £24billion housing benefit bill left behind by Labour and make better use of our housing stock. We’ve given councils £190million to support their residents who may need some extra help. ‘I find Mrs Rolnik’s approach to this whole report utterly unacceptable and frankly her actions undermine the impartiality of the UN.’

Tenants affected by the shake-up will face a 14 per cent cut in housing benefit for the first excess bedroom, and 25 per cent where two or more bedrooms are unused. Ministers, who estimate the average affected household will lose £14 a week, says the policy will save taxpayers £500million a year. They also say it will encourage people to move into smaller properties to relieve pressure on stock, helping families crammed into homes that are too small.

Tory party chairman Grant Shapps said he was writing to Mr Ban to make a formal complaint. ‘It is pretty outrageous – she has done this all under the wire,’ he said.