Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson has been accused by a former neighbor of exaggerating her accounts of a poverty-stricken upbringing. The claims emerge after Phillipson described a report detailing her family's significant profit from selling a council house as a "manufactured smear."
Phillipson, 42, previously stated on Times Radio that the property her mother purchased under the right-to-buy scheme in 1990 was in a "terrible state" with inadequate heating and rotten windows. She suggested that improvements to their living conditions were only possible because her mother bought the house, citing a "sustained failure to invest in that house."
However, individuals who lived on the same street at the time have challenged this depiction. Tracey Morgan, 61, who has resided near the former Phillipson home since 1989, stated that the upstairs rooms were equipped with electric bar heaters and downstairs rooms had radiators heated by back boilers, which also provided hot water. Morgan added that she did not recall seeing rotting windows on the street, noting the presence of sash windows. She also recalled that Sunderland Council maintained the properties and that tenants were temporarily relocated in 1996 for renovations.
Morgan further commented that she observed Clare Phillipson and her daughter appearing "comfortable, and not poor." Another neighbor, who requested anonymity, expressed skepticism about the minister's claims, suggesting that "a lot of this stuff is being fabricated" and that the houses were generally well-maintained.
Bridget Phillipson was born in 1983, and her mother is believed to have moved to the street in the early 1980s. Phillipson herself purchased a former council house three doors away in 2006 with her partner, later husband, Lawrence Dimery. They sold this property in 2016. Her mother sold the family home in 2023 and reportedly lives eight miles away.
A source close to Bridget Phillipson stated that claims from neighbors regarding the state of their homes in the 1990s have no bearing on the condition of Phillipson's mother's home in the 1980s.