Labour 'turning blind eye' to Traveller camps

LABOUR stands accused of “turning a blind eye” to Traveller encampments by ending a requirement for councils to count the number of caravans twice a year.

- BY DAVID WILLIAMSON

A tally will no longer be held in July. Instead, an “annual snapshot will be collected in January”.

Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said the government is “masking the true scale of the challenge residents and the police face”.

Tories fear that unauthorised encampments in the summer months will go unrecorded.

In 2024, a High Court judge ruled a law allowing police to ban Gypsies and Travellers from areas and giving the power to seize accommodation was “incompatible” with the European Convention on Human Rights.