Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson has been accused by a former neighbor of exaggerating her claims about a poverty-stricken upbringing. The accusation follows Phillipson's description of a Mail on Sunday report, which detailed her family's 900 percent profit from selling their council house, as a "manufactured smear."
Phillipson, 42, previously told Times Radio that the family's home in Washington, Tyne and Wear, was in a "terrible state" when her mother purchased it under the right-to-buy scheme in 1990, citing a lack of upstairs heating and rotten windows. She stated that her mother's decision to buy the house was a response to a "sustained failure to invest in that house" by the local council.
However, individuals who lived on the street at the time have contested this account. Tracey Morgan, 61, a neighbor since 1989, stated that upstairs rooms were equipped with electric bar heaters and downstairs rooms had radiators powered by back boilers, which also supplied hot water. Morgan also recalled sash windows, not rotten ones, and noted that Sunderland Council maintained the properties. She added that council tenants were moved out for four months in 1996 for renovations and that Phillipson's family appeared "comfortable, and not poor."
Another neighbor, who requested anonymity, expressed skepticism, suggesting that "a lot of this stuff is being fabricated." They acknowledged the houses were old but maintained they were generally well-kept.
Phillipson's mother is believed to have moved to the street in the early 1980s, with Phillipson living there from her birth in 1983. Phillipson and her now-husband purchased a former council house three doors away in 2006, selling it in 2016. Her mother sold the family home in 2023 and reportedly lives near Phillipson's constituency home.
A source close to Phillipson stated that claims about the state of other homes in the 1990s were irrelevant to the condition of her mother's home in the 1980s.