Paula Barker: how Labour can ‘get our sh*t together’ on homelessness

At the table over, Sir Sadiq Khan catches up with Florence Eshalomi, chair of the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee. At one point in our conversation, Ms Barker is interrupted by a kiss on the head by Lord Bird, founder of The Big Issue, who then chastises her for stealing his best staffer (who is sat at the table with us).

As a backbench MP, Ms Barker says her “bread and butter” and “biggest privilege” is representing her constituents in Liverpool Wavertree, where she was born. She has lived in neighbouring Knowsley for more than two decades. “Liverpudlian women, we are well known for standing up against oppression and for people who are in hard times. We like to give people a voice, and we can, because we’re not very quiet ourselves,” she says, with a laugh.

But in terms of issues, her primary focus is homelessness: “Everyone does it differently, we have lots of colleagues who do a lot of things and spread themselves, whereas I think if you focus down, you have more of an opportunity to try and get those wins.”

Homelessness wasn’t an obvious cause for Ms Barker to champion. In her youth, she studied tarot and the esoteric arts from a “white witch” who was a “proper Scouse woman, nuts but fantastic”. She’s still an avid fan of astrology, witchcraft and all things parapsychology, but “hasn’t practised for years”, while she pursued her career in local government.

“I would have loved to have stayed [as shadow homelessness minister] for longer”

She worked in council customer service before becoming more active in trade union UNISON, eventually taking over the role of North West regional convenor from Angela Rayner, when she became an MP in 2015.

Ms Barker was elected as an MP herself in the 2019 general election, and in 2022 was appointed shadow minister for homelessness and rough sleeping. “I’ve always had an interest in housing, but I hadn’t done a huge amount in the chamber. But then Lisa [Nandy, then-shadow levelling up secretary] just called me one day out of the blue, and I was like, ‘Oh, wow.’”

“The sector is so incredibly knowledgeable and so incredibly welcoming,” she adds. “They’ve got all that breadth of talent and knowledge, and they want to share it.”

But it was less than a year later, in September 2023, that Ms Barker was reshuffled to the role of shadow minister for devolution and the English regions. Although it was a promotion, Ms Barker was reluctant to leave the homelessness brief. “I was like, ‘Can I just stay?’” she says ruefully. “I would have loved to have stayed in it for longer.”

Barely two months later, in November 2023, Ms Barker resigned from the frontbench position to vote for an SNP motion demanding a ceasefire in Gaza.

Would she like to be back in the homelessness brief, now that her party’s in government? Ms Barker’s answer is diplomatic.

“I think there is such a huge wealth of talent in the party, and Keir [Starmer] has picked who he wants,” she says. “Anything that I can do to progress the cause, I’ll do, and I suppose sometimes you have a bit more flexibility when you’re not on the front bench, to really push.”

It can be frustrating for her, though, to see work on homelessness held back by turnover in the cabinet. In autumn, campaigning work by her APPG was delayed by the resignation of homelessness minister Rushanara Ali, a month-long gap before the appointment of Alison McGovern to replace her and the resignation of Ms Rayner as deputy prime minister and secretary of state for housing, communities and local government.

“We are facing an existential crisis in homelessness and housing in general, so the longer we prevaricate and have a changing of the guards, [the more it] pushes things back,” Ms Barker says.

In her time in the shadow minister role, she says, her team worked up a detailed collection of policies – fully-costed and colour-coded – that has since been lost to the ether.

“When Rushanara was there, I said, ‘If you want to sit down and go through them,’ and the offer is there for Ali [McGovern]. We’re not precious about them,” she says. “We’ve still got a copy, and I’d be delighted if the government wants to resurrect that.”

On the day we met, Ms Barker’s team had just penned a letter to ministers, calling for Housing First to be central to the homelessness strategy, and is disappointed a few days later to find out it has only been included as a suggested approach. She also fears that the strategy doesn’t take a truly cross-government approach to tackling homelessness.

“I would be very prescriptive and say every department has to be committed. I’d go as far as to say they have to dedicate a percentage of their budget to eradicating homelessness,” she says. “We’ve seen it more than ever in the last 16 months, that government departments work in silos, and it’s so frustrating.”

That cross-government voice is also weakened by the loss of Ms Rayner in the top job, she says.

“I think Ali [McGovern] is really committed... but when I was shadow minister, we wrote the policy to be delivered from the office of the deputy prime minister to have that gravitas and, of course, now Angela has gone.”

She also mourns the loss of Ms Rayner as a vocal proponent of social housing, and worries that the ‘build, baby, build’ mantra may lose that commitment.

“I think we’ve always had our eye on that, even when Angela was in,” she says. “I understand compromise, but there are certain things we can’t compromise on, and that is definitely one of them.

“We’ve got to ensure that there are truly affordable homes. I want to see the return of council homes – that was something we were rightly proud of.”

She sees the urgency of the housing crisis not just in her work in Westminster, but back home. One large, grand hotel in her constituency is housing dozens of families as temporary accommodation. The children don’t understand why they aren’t allowed to play in the corridors and gardens.

“The impact that has on young people, on their mental health and well-being and physical health, and the fact they can’t invite friends to just play and just be kids, it’s just devastating that those formative years are so impacted by that, and the trauma that it leaves.”

Ms Barker has become a vocal proponent of the campaign to provide furnished tenancies, calling on housing minister Matthew Pennycook for it to be included in the Decent Homes Standard, and emphasising the impact it has on families fleeing domestic violence.

“Let’s bring in rent controls, let’s stop the market going crazy and just making huge profits. We shouldn’t be timid about this, this is progressive”

She’s also hugely concerned about Local Housing Allowance, and pushes back on those who say it will cause private rents to rise. “My argument to pushback on that is, ‘Well, let’s look at rent controls, then,’” she says.

“We’re legislators, let’s legislate for it. Let’s bring in rent controls, let’s stop the market going crazy and just making huge profits. We shouldn’t be timid about this; this is progressive.”

Boldness in policy, Ms Barker argues, should be the Labour Party’s approach to the growing polarisation of politics and the threats coming from both sides of the political spectrum.

“I’m very clear. We shouldn’t try and out-Reform Reform,” she says. “I’m more concerned about traditional Labour voters looking at the Greens and even Lib Dems, because some of their policies now are to the left of us.”

She’s been closely following the rise of Green Party leader Zack Polanski – “I watched his video and was like, ‘That’s what we should be doing’” – and watching with interest the efforts of her former Socialist Campaign Group faction colleagues Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana in founding Your Party.

“I’ve gone through gallons of popcorn,” she jokes, then her tone turns sombre. “I’m sad it’s come to this. I would have preferred them not to form a new party. I would prefer them to still be with us and to try and work through the difficulties.”

Housing and homelessness is where Labour should be clearly marking out its progressive stance during the rest of this election term, she says. And, since she’s a Taurus – “a proper bull in a china shop, very fiery, strong, opinionated, very loyal” – she won’t be shy in telling the government what it needs to do to achieve that.

“It’s a long time to go and I would hope that in that time we start being a bit more coherent in our policies,” she says. “I would sincerely hope that we get our shit together to turn this mess around, and just remind people of what a Labour government can deliver.”