Ken Livingstone asks London Assembly member to apologise for likening social rented accommodation to 鈥渉ousing for riff-raff鈥�

Ken Livingstone has called on London Assembly member Tony Arbour to apologise for likening social rented accommodation to 鈥渉ousing for riff-raff鈥�.

London鈥檚 mayor said Arbour should retract his comments, made at a Richmond Council meeting on 27 September, and reverse his longstanding opposition to the government target for half of new homes in London to be affordable.

Arbour鈥檚 reportedly said: 鈥淚 do not believe, for one moment, that if a private owner came along and said, I do not want to have any riff-raff on this site, but I will provide the housing for the riff raff somewhere else in the borough, this would be acceptable.鈥�

Ken Livingstone, London mayor

Livingstone said: 鈥淚t is quite clear that his remarks were unacceptable and his desperate attempts to explain them away after the event do not hold water.

鈥淢ore importantly he should stop trying to block proposals for more affordable homes to be built in Richmond and end his opposition to my London Plan target that 50% of all new homes should be affordable.鈥�

Livingstone said that his polls show 83% of Londoners back his target.

鈥淚n his choice of language and his policy approach Tony Arbour is out of step,鈥� he said

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