Housing minister McVey is “reviled” in her local area, claims newspaper

The Liverpool Echo says housing minister Esther McVey, who was born in the city, is now ”reviled” there following comments about poor families.

According to the newspaper McVey - who makes her first speech as housing minister next month at the annual RESI Convention at Newport, south Wales - is “potentially the universally-most disliked politician across our region.”

It refers to her as being, in a former government position as Works and Pensions Secretary, “the face of Tory benefit policies like the Bedroom Tax, and more recently Universal Credit.”

It also lists reasons why it believes McVey is so unpopular, in an article it says is the MP’s “record of shame.”

This includes a comment in 2013 in the House of Commons in which she says it is “right” that people use food banks, and an incident in 2014 when McVey apologised for sending a party political tweet during a memorial service for the victims of the Hillsborough disaster. At the time she said she did not attend the memorial service due to "government work commitments.”

The Echo adds that this year, during her unsuccessful bid to become Tory leader, McVey was criticised for telling a national newspaper: "When I was growing up my parents put money into food, utility bills and the mortgage. Now people feel to be connected they’ve got to have an iPad and a phone that will help them with education and jobs.”

Yesterday, in her new role as housing minister, she urged school leavers to consider careers in the construction industry.

Praising a report suggesting that bricklayers enjoyed a typical salary of £42,000 she said: “If you want to master a trade, financial stability and opportunities across the country, you can’t go wrong with the construction sector … I’m determined to get Britain building the homes we need, and my message to school leavers is: your country needs you, to get Britain building again.”

Here’s the Liverpool Echo article.