Richard Tice has launched a scathing attack on Andy Burnham as he unveiled plans to prioritise British citizens for social housing.
Speaking to GB News, the Deputy Leader of Reform UK declared it is the role of Government to prioritise Britons.
The party has unveiled fresh plans to overhaul the social housing system in the UK by prioritising British-born youth over foreign nationals and asylum seekers.
Under the plans, British-born workers under 35 will be put "at the front of the queue", with priority given to married couples with children in a bid to ease the difficulties of getting on the housing ladder.
Speaking at a press conference earlier today, Mr Tice said: "We've ended up with a desperate shortage of affordable housing, council housing, and it's got worse and worse.
"Our ambition is to stop the rot. We need to turn it around. And so from a construction point of view, a Reform Government will build an extra 50,000 affordable social homes every year for a decade.
"That is more than has been achieved for decades. Not only do we know it's the right thing to do, but it's also the fair thing to do. But it's absolutely essential."
Doubling down on his plan, Mr Tice told GB News that the affordable housing system in the UK is "broken", and only Reform can fix it.
He said: "The British people are sick and tired of Tory waffle, Tory talk and no action, and that's the reason they got thrown out after 14 years of failure.
"The affordable housing system in this country is broken, and only Reform will fix it by prioritising young British workers, young British married couples, young British veterans who've served their country, they should go to the top of the queue on what we call a suitability test as opposed to a needs test.
"It's the right thing to do. The role of the British Government is to look after the British people, and we're also announcing today how we will build an extra 50,000 affordable homes every year over the next decade."
Mr Tice made clear that "people who work and do the right thing should be at the top of the queue", not foreign nationals or asylum seekers.
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He said: "I've built more homes than the previous 24, 25 housing ministers combined. Mind you, you could say that's not that difficult given the incompetents who've been there before.
"It's just not fair. It's not the British way. You don't expect to rock up to someone else's country, not work, and expect by way of a right or entitlement for their local taxpayers to pay for you to live in subsidised housing. The right thing to do is to work and pay your own way."
The Reform Deputy hit back at criticism from the Left of the policy, accusing them of "whingeing and whining".
He told GB News: "Resources are tight, manage them properly, but prioritise British people, British workers doing the right thing first, and that sets a good example.
"And to all those lefties who are whingeing and whining about this policy, I say this. The role of the British Government is to prioritise and look after British citizens. We can't house the world, we can't feed the world, let's actually focus on our own population, our own people."
He highlighted the "shocking" statistics on social housing in Britain, amid the party's plan to overhaul the system.
Mr Tice concluded: "The statistics are shocking, only 27 per cent of people in social housing are in work, and only 36 per cent of lettings last year were to people in work. We were told people were coming from overseas in order to work well, either they're not working or they've come with a large family and it's just a matter of fairness and the current system is unfair.
"We want to bring back a degree of fairness and motivation and encouragement to our young people."
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