Sir Keir Starmer was today forced to deny Labour plans to ‘flatten the whole green belt’ to build houses if the party wins the general election.
The Labour leader insisted he would ‘protect the countryside’ if he enters Downing Street, while also meeting his party’s pledge to build 1.5million new homes.
He was forced to respond after Rishi Sunak claimed to have exposed Labour’s ‘real views on Britain’s green belt’.
The PM highlighted an article from the Politico website, which quoted a Labour official as saying: ‘I don’t care if we flatten the whold green belt, we just need more houses in this country.’
Posting on X, formerly known as Twitter, Mr Sunak wrote: ‘Just been sent this article from Politico this morning. Good to finally get Labour’s real views on Britain’s green belt.’
There are around 6,300 square miles of green belt land in England, which is designed to prevent urban sprawl into the countryside.
But, during a visit today to a housing development in York, Sir Keir told journalists: ‘No, that wasn’t Labour Party officials. That wasn’t Labour Party policy.
‘What we will do is we will build the one and a half million houses that we need over the next five years on projects like this, with the facilities they need.
‘Because what you need here is the schools and the GPs and the facilities that are needed for housing.
‘We will get on and do the building we need to do, but we’d of course protect the countryside, as you’d expect.’
Labour has pledged to build 1.5 million new homes over the next five years, if elected on 4 July.
To achieve this, the party has vowed to reform planning rules to build homes on the so-called ‘grey belt’, which it describes as poor quality land, car parks and wasteland.
The party also plans a ban on no-fault evictions, introducing legal protections for tenants when it comes to mould, and putting an end to rental bidding wars and upfront payments.
The Tories have promised to deliver 1.6 million new homes if re-elected, by speeding up planning on ‘brownfield’ land in inner cities and ‘scrapping defective EU laws’.
In an offer to first-time house buyers, the Conservatives have said they will abolish stamp duty up to the value of £425,000 and launch a ‘new and improved’ Help to Buy scheme.