State House occupies a prized hilltop location in central Freetown. As befits the official home of the President and First Lady of Sierra Leone, the colonial-era residence includes wide verandas, arched colonnades and ceremonial lawns, embodying – as the official website proudly describes – ‘imperial grandeur’.
Ensuring that foreigners are not put above Brits removes one of the most egregious council housing injustices
You might ask why a lady blessed with such an abode might want a second property in Walworth, South London. But wherever Sierra Leone’s First Lady chooses to spend her time shopping, any sensible country would conclude that she has quite enough moolah to buy own accommodation.
But then we are no longer a sensible country. So it is that Fatima Bio rented a council flat from 2007 until the British press got wind of it in 2025. It took Southwark council’s housing investigations team 12 months to conclude Fatima Bui was indeed Sierra Leone’s First Lady and that she might not need the property when there are 18,000 people on Southwark’s housing waiting list.
Kemi Badenoch has announced that a future Tory government would end council housing for foreigners, evicting more than 230,000 non-EU foreign households to free up supply. This, the Tories said, would ensure the UK is no longer treated as a ‘cash machine for the world’. The new Tory policy mirrors that already announced by Reform a couple of months ago, though Reform are proposing to go further by not granting any exception for EU settled-status holders (and simultaneously abolishing Indefinite Leave to Remain). Under Reform’s plan, those who refuse to vacate would also risk losing their right to remain in the country. That sounds reasonable to me, if they refuse to abide by the law of the land.
