​Cockney Kate misses the point - John McLellan

​It was going to one of the wealthiest postcodes in the world, trilled Cllr Kate Campbell, who sounds as Cockney as the late Barbara Windsor, when it should be going to tackle poverty and inequality elsewhere.

Perhaps as a local lass, Cllr Campbell might have known that Tower Hamlets, the local authority covering Canary Wharf, is the tenth most deprived council area in England, but it took Conservative group leader and proud Leither Iain Whyte to point this out.

Cllr Whyte also helped explain that rather than handing £242m to fat cat bankers (who are leaving Canary Wharf anyway), the repayable loans would be split between Tower Hamlets and neighbouring Barking, England’s 21st most deprived area where £124m will be invested in building 7200 homes at Barking Riverside. That’s a joint venture deal between the L&Q housing association and the Greater London Authority, you know, the one led by Sadiq Khan.

The £118m for Canary Wharf will accelerate a life sciences hub, a healthcare facility and fund 750 new homes.

So the former housing convener was objecting to UK Government money being spent on providing thousands of affordable homes in two of the most deprived districts in England.

It’s some socialist who would object to helping deprived people in her old back yard, just because she’s shrouded herself in a Saltire.