‘I thought I’d be dead by now’ – can Labour use Blair template to cut ‘shameful’ levels of rough sleeping?

Published

8 months ago

October 11, 2024

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Ian Harrison watches a film in which, 16 years ago, he is on the streets begging for money in Covent Garden.

Recorded in 2008, we see a fresh-faced 19-year-old Ian, who has been evicted from his flat, telling the camera he is going to take as many drugs as he can get.

“I want to get so far gone, all my problems go away, just for tonight,” he says.

Watching this, 35-year-old Ian blinks slowly.

He nods and lets out a big sigh. Then his teenage self says something prescient: “Nothing changes, only time, and the people I’m begging from.”

Ian nods again: “He is right. Look where I am now!”

Ian is still homeless, his face now wears the years he’s lived on the streets and the addiction to heroin and crack he is still battling.

And although he has a room in a hostel for the moment, his life is on the same cliff-edge it was all those years ago.

It is significant that Ian became homeless in the late 2000s, towards the end of the Blair/Brown era, when a drive to tackle rough sleeping had successfully reduced numbers on the streets by two-thirds and kept them low for a sustained period.

The 2008 financial crisis and subsequent global economic downturn saw homelessness numbers begin to rise, and steadily do so for a decade until a period during the pandemic triggered a drive to get people off the streets.

But now it is peaking again and last year Ian was among 11,993 rough sleepers in London – the highest ever recorded in the capital.

Labour‘s deputy prime minister, Angela Rayner, described the situation as “shameful” as she took over the task of sorting it out.

Ms Rayner will lead a new cross-government taskforce to tackle the issue, which has echoes of Tony Blair‘s cross-department approach.

However, the success of Blair’s rough sleeping unit, launched in 1999, was also attributed to its focus on attempting to tackle the causes of homelessness, not just finding people places to stay.

This is something Ian feels is lacking now.

Despite having a roof over his head, his single room looks like the streets have followed him in.

The floor is covered in rubbish, the sink and walls stained, flies buzz around a small boxy space that smells not dissimilar to the cardboard home he lived in under the Hammersmith flyover a few months ago.

Ian grew up in care and says he hasn’t learned how to look after himself.

He says: “I struggle with a lot of basic things in life. I never had parents to say brush your teeth, get in the shower do this, do that, when you grow up into an adult you don’t have that stuff.”

‘Hard to be stable in a place like this’

He is off the drugs and has a prescription for methadone, but says his environment doesn’t help.

“It’s hard to be stable in a place like this, because it’s a very unstable place to be in,” he says.

“If you are picking someone up and putting them in a hostel with 26 other people who are all addicts, it’s not going to take long before it’s going to rub off on you.”

He is in supported accommodation but says it doesn’t offer the support he needs, which is self-care, organisation and, frankly, a great deal of therapy.

No one has ever addressed the root causes of Ian’s problems.

“From a very young age, you know, I went through a lot of sexual abuse, mental abuse, physical abuse, which was sustained daily, for years,” he says.

“They say you need therapy, but to get the therapy you need to be completely clean of drugs and alcohol for a couple of years. But that’s part of the illness, it’s part of the symptoms of the illness.”

‘Stuck in a merry-go-round for 20 years’

It will be the task of Ms Rayner’s cross-department team to try to turn around the lives of people like Ian – and it won’t be cheap.

But the Sky News producer who filmed the footage back in 2008 and has known Ian since that time, has seen him go through countless hostels (around 30, says Ian) and mental institutions, only to eventually end up back out on the streets.

The long-term cost of not solving Ian’s problems is incalculable.

“I’ve been stuck in a merry-go-round for 20 years,” he says.

“l become homeless, get into a hostel, become homeless. You give up.”

Asked what his 19-year-old self would have hoped to being doing in his 30s, Ian says: “To be honest, I thought I’d be dead by now. And I wouldn’t have cared if I was.”

But Ian does care now.

A wish list, written on his hostel wall, reads: “Stop using all drugs, save up more cash, care 4 self better, start up business, go to gym, get routine, have camping holiday.”

To achieve this, he is going to need the kind of help that has eluded him all his life.

UK

Liverpool fan says his baby was flung 15ft in his pram and his partner run over during trophy parade

Published

15 mins ago

May 28, 2025

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Liverpool fan says his baby was flung 15ft in his pram and his partner run over during trophy parade

A father has told Sky News how his partner was driven over, and his baby son was flung 15ft in his pram, after they were hit by a vehicle during the Liverpool parade collision.

Daniel Everson, 36, had been with Sheree Aldridge and their five-month-old baby, Teddy, at Liverpool FC’s victory parade on Monday.

“The best day of my life turned into worst”, said Daniel, a lifelong fan of ‘The Reds’.

Daniel described the moment the car came towards him and his family.

“I tried to hold on to the front of the car and try and stop it, push it, do whatever I could [to stop it] from hitting my partner and my baby.

“Me and my partner were flat on the roof, on the bonnet… we were just both trying to hold on for dear life with Ted next to us.

“And my partner went under the wheels of the car, of the front of the car, and it rolled over her leg, and I just bounced off to the side, but my boy and his pram got bounced totally in the opposite direction – about 15ft down the road.

“As soon as that happened, I just started screaming for my partner, and I found her and I asked where Teddy was, and she didn’t know… and I found him and he was okay, thank God.

“He was in the road, in his pram, on his back, and I grabbed him. I chucked the pushchair to the side and I ran up to some paramedics with him.”

Daniel, from Telford, said he felt like he was in “hell” as he rushed back to find Sheree.

“I had to carry her up the road with four police officers holding her while she was screaming and crying. At that point, I didn’t know what was wrong with her, but I could see the injuries to her leg,” he explained.

Sheree, 36, is recovering at Aintree University Hospital after suffering muscle tissue damage. Daniel has been allowed to return home with Teddy after he was assessed at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital.

“I feel a lot of emotions right now. Upset, angry, traumatised. A lot of unanswered questions that need to be answered.

“To me, it just wasn’t handled properly – the situation with the car getting that far into the crowd, in my opinion, he should not have got anywhere near us.”

Merseyside Police have now been given more time to question a 53-year-old arrested after a car struck a crowd at Liverpool FC’s victory parade on Monday.

The suspect, who police have described as a white British man from the local area, is being held on suspicion of attempted murder, dangerous driving, and drug driving.

Police have said the extra time they have been given to question the suspect runs into Thursday.

UK

Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan charged with rape in the UK

Published

5 hours ago

May 28, 2025

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Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan charged with rape in the UK

Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan Tate have been charged with rape and other offences in the UK.

Andrew Tate, 38, faces 10 charges, including rape, actual bodily harm, human trafficking and controlling prostitution for gain, relating to three women.

His brother Tristan Tate, 36, faces 11 charges relating to one woman – including rape, actual bodily harm and human trafficking.

The charges were authorised in January 2024, but full details have only been released now.

Bedfordshire Police issued an international arrest warrant for the brothers over allegations, which they “unequivocally deny”, said to have occurred between 2012 and 2015.

The Tate brothers are facing separate allegations of trafficking minors, sexual intercourse with a minor and money laundering in Romania.

They are also accused of human trafficking and forming a criminal gang to sexually exploit women in a different case, which has been sent back to prosecutors.

They are due to be extradited to the UK following the conclusion of proceedings in Romania.

A Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) spokesperson said: “We can confirm that we have authorised charges against Andrew and Tristan Tate for offences including rape, human trafficking, controlling prostitution and actual bodily harm against three women.

“These charging decisions followed receipt of a file of evidence from Bedfordshire Police.

“A European Arrest Warrant was issued in England in 2024, and as a result the Romanian courts ordered the extradition to the UK of Andrew and Tristan Tate.”

The spokesperson added: “However, the domestic criminal matters in Romania must be settled first.

“The Crown Prosecution Service reminds everyone that criminal proceedings are active, and the defendants have the right to a fair trial.

“It is extremely important that there be no reporting, commentary or sharing of information online which could in any way prejudice these proceedings.”

Representatives for Andrew Tate have been contacted by Sky News for comment.

Lawyer Matt Jury, of McCue Jury & Partners, representing several alleged British victims of Andrew Tate, said: “We welcome the clarity from the Crown Prosecution Service that our authorities are working to ensure the Tates face justice here in the UK – they cannot be allowed to escape extradition.

“At the same time, we ask once more that CPS admit its mistake in failing to prosecute Tate when he lived in the UK and finally charge him for the rape and assault of the other three women, our clients, who originally filed criminal complaints against him as long ago as 2014 but were failed by the system.

“They deserve justice, too.”

The allegations were subject to a police investigation, which was closed in 2019.

UK

Police given more time to question Liverpool parade collision suspect

Published

6 hours ago

May 28, 2025

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Police given more time to question Liverpool parade collision suspect

Merseyside Police has been given more time to question a 53-year-old man arrested over the Liverpool parade collision.

The suspect is being held on suspicion of attempted murder, dangerous driving and drug driving after a car was driven into a crowd at Liverpool FC’s victory parade on Monday.

Police have said the extra time they have been given to question the suspect runs into Thursday.

The force believes the vehicle which struck pedestrians on Water Street had followed an ambulance crew that was attending to someone suffering a heart attack, after a road block was temporarily lifted.

Earlier, new footage emerged showing a car being driven into the crowd as panicked fans watched in horror and tried to avoid being hit.

The CCTV footage showed supporters attempting to move out of the way as the vehicle ploughed into supporters.

Cries could be heard from the crowd – before police and members of the public chased after the car.

In an update on Wednesday, Merseyside Police said it was in contact with 79 people who were injured in the crash – an increase on the 65 people who were confirmed injured in the force’s previous update.

Seven people remain in hospital in a stable condition following the collision, the force added.

Detective Superintendent Rachel Wilson said: “I’m pleased to say that the number of people in hospital is reducing as they continue to recover from the awful incident.

“We continue to support those still receiving treatment and as part of our ongoing enquiries we are identifying more people who were injured.

“I want to reassure the public of Merseyside that detectives are making significant progress as we seek to establish the full circumstances that led to what happened.”

DS Wilson said that “extensive CCTV enquiries” were being carried out across Liverpool to “establish the movements of the car, a Ford Galaxy, before the incident took place”.

She added: “We have already had an incredible response from many of those who were there on the day, and I thank them for their co-operation with our investigation.

“I would encourage anyone who has not yet contacted police who may have information on this incident to do so.

“An extensive investigation into the precise circumstances of the incident is ongoing, and we continue to ask people not to speculate on the circumstances surrounding the incident and refrain from sharing distressing content online.”

It comes after Water Street was reopened to vehicles and pedestrians on Wednesday after the police cordon was lifted.

Street cleaning teams worked overnight to clear the road, which had been littered with bottles, cans and football scarves and flags.

One remaining Liverpool flag was removed from the top of a set of traffic lights by a worker wearing hi-vis.

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On Tuesday night, Liverpool manager Arne Slot decided not to attend the League Managers Association’s annual awards ceremony “in solidarity with those affected by the incident on Monday”.

Meanwhile, speaking at an awards ceremony on Tuesday, former Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp said the collision on Water Street “showed the two faces of life”.

He said: “The most beautiful face for a long, long time: the parade was incredible, the mood was incredible and from one second to another everything changed and we learned again there are more serious things in the world than football.

“Thoughts and prayers go to the injured people and their families as well.

“It should have been one of the greatest days in the history of the city, after a long, long time, because we didn’t have the opportunity to do it last time. I don’t know how and why it happened but we know what happened and that’s very bad.”