Morning Briefing: Raab told to prove claim immigration raises house prices

In the news

The sector was astir yesterday as housing minister and leading Brexiter Dominic Raab gave a high-profile interview to The Sunday Times.

The whole piece is well worth reading, but the headline was Mr Raab’s claim that immigration has pushed up house prices by 20% in the past 25 years.

In a follow-up story this morning, The Times reports that senior economists are calling on Mr Raab to publish the advice he referred to in the interview, accusing him of “back of an envelope” calculations.

Meanwhile, the Labour Party is launching its London local election campaign today, with Jeremy Corbyn expected to place housing and the Grenfell Tower fire at the centre of his strategy.

The Guardian reports that at a speech in Westminster today alongside London mayor Sadiq Khan, Mr Corbyn will say that the fire showed London “may be united, but we are deeply unequal”.

The same paper has a story on the government’s most senior welfare advisor, who has warned ministers to expect a backlash when millions of welfare claimants moving onto Universal Credit realise their benefits will be cut.

In Scotland, The National reports that Westminster is preventing the Scottish Government from ending the bedroom tax north of the border, as it promised to do in its manifesto.

Elsewhere in government, the Home Office has been accused of turning “a blind eye to discrimination” after rejecting recommendations from its own inspector to reform its Right to Rent policy.

The Independent reports that the chief inspector of borders and immigration warned the government it was failing to assess the impact of the policy on “racial and other discrimination”.

On social media

Predicting he will struggle t.co/eh148EqC2B

— Dave (@dave_lockerman)

Predicting he will struggle https://t.co/eh148EqC2B

— Dave (@dave_lockerman) April 9, 2018

You know how housing minister’s never last more than 12 months. This one’s going to annoyingly break that and be in post for a while isn’t he. #Help t.co/rjC9yIrirx

— Paul Wellman (@PaulWellman_EG)

You know how housing minister's never last more than 12 months. This one's going to annoyingly break that and be in post for a while isn't he. #Help https://t.co/rjC9yIrirx

— Paul Wellman (@PaulWellman_EG) April 8, 2018

What’s on

Jeremy Corbyn and Sadiq Khan will jointly launch Labour’s local election campaign for London today at an event in Westminster.