May opposes call for beggars’ removal before royal wedding

THERESA MAY has said she disagrees with a Tory council leader who called on police to clear rough sleepers from Windsor before the royal wedding.

Simon Dudley said beggars could present the town in a “sadly unfavourable light” when Prince Harry marries Meghan Markle in May. He tweeted that some rough sleepers had made a “commercial life choice praying on residents and tourists”. In a letter to police, he complained about “aggressive begging and intimidation”, and “bags and detritus” on the streets.

During a visit to a hospital in nearby Camberley, Mrs May said: “I don’t agree with the comments that the leader of the council has made. I think it is important that councils work hard to ensure that they are providing accommodation for those people who are homeless, and where there are issues of people who are aggressively begging on the streets then it’s important that councils work with the police to deal with that aggressive begging.”

Mr Dudley’s comments were called “sickening” by Murphy James, of Windsor Homeless Project, who said: “It’s absolutely abhorrent that anybody has got these views in this day and age, especially a lead councillor of the borough.” He added: “I went out on Christmas Day and there were 12 people laid out on Windsor High Street. They were not there by choice.”