The home secretary, Suella Braverman, has described rough sleeping as a “lifestyle choice” while defending her decision to restrict the use of tents by homeless people on the streets of Britain.

According to Whitehall insiders, Braverman plans to crack down on tents that cause a nuisance in urban areas such as high streets – amid growing numbers of rough sleepers and what the government considers a rise in antisocial behaviour.

The home secretary has also proposed the introduction of a civil offence, which could lead to charities being fined if they provide homeless people with tents, the Financial Times reported.

Writing on X, formerly Twitter, Braverman defended her proposals, saying: “The British people are compassionate. We will always support those who are genuinely homeless. But we cannot allow our streets to be taken over by rows of tents occupied by people, many of them from abroad, living on the streets as a lifestyle choice.

“Unless we step in now to stop this, British cities will go the way of places in the US like San Francisco and Los Angeles, where weak policies have led to an explosion of crime, drug-taking, and squalor.

  • @kaitco
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    321 year ago

    Wow, this heifer really has zero concern for possible repercussions to her actions or her words.

    Shall the Brits return to the days of the houses that lent you a rope to drape over for the night before you go back to your wandering homelessness? At least a rope to drape over at night wouldn’t be as much of an eyesore as a tent, right?!?

    People should just start camping out on her property by the thousands just on principle.

    • @OrteilGenou
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      161 year ago

      Sleeping on clotheslines was the source of the term “hungover”.

      Lifestyle choice, see?

      • Echo Dot
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        41 year ago

        Well in that case being hungover is practically a British institution.

        The whole point of drinking is to do it to excess. If you can remember your name at the end of a night out it’s a failure.