The plight of refugees shows why we make this simple socialist call for Labour to commit to ending homelessness

Jeremy Corbyn has called this general election a fight between the people and the establishment. On the front line of that struggle are thousands of homeless Britons and refugees, who have been cast aside by this morally bankrupt Tory government. Their suffering is the ugliest symbol of the way in which the Tories have damaged and divided our society in the seven long years of their rule.

So today, as a group of MPs warn that refugees face going hungry and having to sleeping rough after being granted asylum, the Labour Campaign to End Homelessness makes this simple socialist call: our party must commit to ending homelessness. Do so without shame, without hesitation, without qualification and without delay. The party has asked its members to shape its manifesto, and our nationwide network of activists are united in calling for Labour to commit to ending homelessness. Now.

We make this call following two years of extensive research, street activism and policy-writing. We have gone to the length of producing our own manifesto to end homelessness, which can be read here. Our policy suggestions are backed by all the major homelessness charities, and we have been supported by hundreds of MPs, councillors and Labour members who last year signed an open letter calling for the party to share our aim of ending homelessness.

Our campaign has done the heavy lifting on the party’s behalf. We have engaged with hundreds of victims of homelessness, countless Labour members, and a myriad of organisations dedicated to ending homelessness. All the party needs do is include in its manifesto our policy suggestions, and our aim of ending all forms of homelessness, and it will honour its profound ambition to advance the cause of the many, not the few.

When Labour was last in power, it all-but-eradicated street homelessness. Even at the height of the global financial crisis, rough sleeping was lower under Labour than it is under today’s Tory government. This, in the starkest human terms, is the difference between a Labour government and a Tory one. And that is why only the Labour Party can reverse the tragic moral failure of this government and set our country on the path towards to ending this blight on our vastly rich society.

We make this call not as aspirant parliamentary candidates, but as passionate activists who know that power concedes nothing without demand. At this moment, at this election, Labour has a better chance than ever to love up to its moral duty not merely to achieve equality of opportunity, but equality of outcome. That, in the end, is the true measure of a democratic socialist party, and we ask that you join us in calling for Labour to commit to ending homelessness once and for all.

You can help shape Labour’s manifesto by following this link. Thank you.

Sam Stopp and Ryan Maynes are chair and vice chair respectively of Labour Campaign to End Homelessness.