“Turn Buckingham Palace into council flats,” says Labour’s London housing spokesman

Buckingham Palace should be used to provide a solution to the social housing crisis in London, Labour’s London housing spokesman Tom Copely has suggested.

Copely’s provocative remarks, calling for the eviction of the Queen from her 775-bedroom London residence, were made at the annual Class conference.

Addressing an audience of trade-unionists and Labour supporters, Copely said:  “I almost think my opening gambit should be that the solution to the housing crisis should be the late Mo Mowlam’s proposal that we turn Buckingham Palace into council housing – which I always thought wasn’t a particularly bad idea.”

His remarks followed outrage from the right-wing press over his description over media coverage of the birth of Prince George as “stomach-churning”.

Yesterday, Copely defended the sentiments in an article in the Guardian slamming the expenses the royal family rack up, comparing them to the abuses by MPs seen in the expenses scandal.

Tory vice-chairman Bob Neill said that Copely’s call to repossess the Palace was “mean-spirited and vindictive”.

“Not content with spouting drivel on his blog, Tom Copley has continued to wage war against the royal family this week,” he said.

“These kind of vindictive and mean-spirited ideas won’t wash with most people. He couldn’t be more out of touch.

“The public want politicians who do their job, not who spend their time on a foolish anti-monarchy campaign whose sole aim is self-publicity.”

Copely later admitted that he may have misquoted Mowlam’s recommendations for repurposing the palace, as she had suggested that the palace should become a museum and the Queen could live in an expensive home elsewhere.

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