Conservative MP Mike Weatherley has hit back at claims that he is personally responsible for the death of a homeless man who froze outside an abandoned house in Essex, saying that “a typical squatter is middle-class, web-savvy, legally minded, university-educated and, most importantly, society-hating.”
Weatherley, who introduced legislation into parliament to criminalise squatting, was the target of an anonymous website “Is Mike Weatherley Dead Yet?”, which said that the MP’s legislation was responsible for the death of thirty-five-year-old Daniel Gauntlett in Aylesford, Kent. Gauntlett had previously had trouble with the police when he tried to break into an abandoned bungalow for shelter, and apparently took the decision to sleep outside the property in order to avoid breaking the law. He froze to death overnight.
When the Argus, Weatherley’s constituency’s newspaper, put the claim to him, he replied:
It is true that some of those who are homeless have squatted but this does not make them squatters. A typical squatter is middle-class, web-savvy, legally minded, university-educated and, most importantly, society-hating. They are political extremists whose vision for society is a dysfunctional medieval wasteland without property rights, where an Englishman’s castle is no longer his home.
Trespassing has been illegal in this country for hundreds of years for good reason, as has breaking and entering. But the laws weren’t working as squatters were able to take advantage of legislation that was put in place to stop bad landlords from throwing out good tenants.
Squatters should not be allowed to peddle their myths. If squatters really cared about the homeless then they would help them access council services, not scare them into believing that they would be arrested.
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