By Sophie Corcoran, Young People’s Director, Great British PAC.
How much more are young people supposed to take?
We’ve done everything society told us to do: studied hard, gone to university, taken on debt, worked long hours, and yet, for our trouble, we are locked out of home ownership, crippled by extortionate rents, and staring down a job market that no longer works for us.
And just when we think things can’t get any worse, Labour brings a fresh betrayal.
Their latest housing plan? Urge landlords to prioritise asylum seekers over young Brits already desperate for a place to live. At a time when four in ten under-30s are spending over 30% of their wages just to keep a roof over their heads, Labour has decided that our needs come second. That we come second.
This isn’t policy. This is a statement. It says: you are no longer a priority in your own country.
Worse still, Labour isn’t even trying to hide it. Of the homes they’ve promised to build, the majority are already projected to go to migrants. So while young British workers delay moving out, delay starting families, delay building their futures, Labour is busy rolling out the welcome mat for everyone but us.
Where is the fairness in that?
And don’t be fooled into thinking this betrayal ends with housing. Labour’s proposed EU Youth Mobility Scheme will hand thousands of jobs to young Europeans, throwing open our already overstretched job market. At a time when graduates are struggling to land their first real job, Labour’s answer is to flood the system with even more competition. That isn’t opportunity… it’s sabotage.
Add in rising National Insurance costs discouraging employers from hiring inexperienced workers, and student loan repayments that kick in just above minimum wage, and what do you have? A generation that did “everything right”, now punished at every turn.
Where are we supposed to live? Where are we supposed to work? How are we supposed to build a future when every job, every flat, every opportunity is handed to someone else?
We’re told this is all in the name of “compassion.” But there is nothing compassionate about forcing an entire generation of young Brits to carry the burden of policies designed to appease activists, not serve the people. Mass immigration drives up housing demand. It drives down wages. It overwhelms public services. And the people paying the price? Not the wealthy, not the political class. It’s us.
Labour isn’t building a future where young people can thrive. They are constructing a system in which we are permanently trapped: crushed by rent, buried in debt, frozen out of stable jobs, and told to be grateful for it.
And perhaps the most tragic part? My generation is still cheering it on.
Every time we post “refugees welcome” without stopping to ask who pays the price, we’re tightening the chains around our own future. Every vote for Labour is a vote against affordable housing, against fair job opportunities, against a Britain that works for young people.
It’s time we stop pretending.
Immigration comes at a cost. And right now, it’s our generation paying it… every single day.
We didn’t create the housing crisis. We didn’t break the labour market. We didn’t bankrupt public services. But we are the ones being asked to sacrifice our futures to protect the egos of Westminster and the feelings of Twitter.
Labour has betrayed us. They’ve sold us out for applause from the Guardian comment section and dinner party approval in Islington. They’ve made one thing painfully clear: if you’re a young British worker, you are not a priority.
But we don’t have to accept it.
If we want a future, a real one, we must stop voting for those who are systematically destroying our chances. We must stop clapping along to slogans without asking: what’s the cost, and who pays it?
Because if we don’t wake up, the Britain we were promised won’t just be gone for our children or grandchildren.
It will be gone for us.
And by then, we’ll have no one left to blame but ourselves.
Sign Sophie’s petition here: Stop the Use of Private Rental Accommodation for Housing Asylum Seekers
