Angela Rayner making it easier for travellers to set up illegal camps is a green light for lawbreaking

Thank you for subscribing!

Labour has refused to take action to protect Britons, writes Shadow Housing Secretary James Cleverly

On Monday, the Conservatives announced plans to clamp down on illegal and unauthorised traveller sites. Everyone should obey the law, whatever community we are part of.

The vast majority of people, including most travellers, agree with that. It seems Labour does not.

On the very same day I announced the party's plans, Labour published their updated National Planning Policy Framework. Hidden in the small print were changes that will make it easier for travellers to set up illegal sites and get away with it.

As the number of caravans on unauthorised sites soars, Angela Rayner has chosen not to take action to protect local residents; instead, she has given the green light for even more lawbreaking. I have seen the impact that illegal sites have firsthand.

At Willows Green within my Braintree constituency in Essex, travellers occupied land over the May bank holiday weekend and started building. They timed it deliberately so council offices were closed and no action could be taken.

They poured concrete and connected up water and electricity. They are still there on the four-acre site which they turned into a dozen plots and have applied for retrospective planning permission.

They bought the land before coming in – but they do not have planning permission to build on it. Under the Labour Government, the number of caravans on unauthorised sites on travellers’ own land has risen by a third.

It is unbelievable to see Rayner reduce the grounds on which councils can reject planning applications from travellers who have set up their camps and applied for permission afterwards. The Conservatives changed planning rules to give councils more powers and ripped up John Prescott’s top-down diktats.The Housing Secretary has now reversed these changes.

Sir Keir Starmer’s attorney general, Lord Hermer, caved in to the ECHR and watered down laws against trespass introduced by the previous Conservative government. Rayner’s changes are making things worse.

The Conservatives are on the side of people who play by the rules, not the small minority who break them. The contrast with Labour could not be clearer.

And there is an irony here, too. Andy Burnham and Rayner like to talk about "devolution", but once again they are trying to dictate to people what should happen to their areas.

The Conservatives are the only party with a serious plan to deal with the problem. Using freedoms gained by leaving the ECHR, we will tackle the illegal sites.

We will amend the law so that anyone who wants to live on land in a caravan must always get permission first and introduce a presumption against approving sites retrospectively. And we will give the police and councils the backing they need to tackle trespass, including by introducing new criminal offences.

This is how we end the two-tier planning system where travellers get special treatment. We all have a stake in the rule of law.

When a small minority break the rules and get away with it, it sends a signal that the law is not worth obeying. That leads to further breaches and the system collapses. We cannot allow this to continue.

And we will not. We will take the tough action necessary to protect local communities and ensure equality before the law.