Fury after Shelter tries to force pro-migrant line into homeless veteran's story

The charity Shelter has been accused of forcing its open-borders agenda on a homeless military veteran by urging him to rewrite a personal testimony to include a defence of migrants getting houses.

The former soldier, who served Britain in Eastern Europe, responded to a request from Shelter last December for Britons to share their homelessness stories.

He submitted a harrowing account of his experience of defending Britain, post-traumatic stress disorder, homelessness, emergency accommodation and a legal battle with his local council.

Shelter leapt on the military veteran's account, which did not mention immigrants, telling him it was 'exactly the sort of story they were looking for'.

But weeks later, he was astonished to see that the taxpayer-funded charity had sent him a fresh message, asking him to insert lines into his testimony to defend immigrants being given accommodation.

The email from Shelter, shared with this paper, added: 'One thing we need to be mindful of is that (for some reason) people conflate veterans being homeless with migrants 'getting homes', so we'd need to address this in the post.

'You could either write something we can include or we could add something at the end like, 'We need social homes. Everything else, putting the blame on migrants, so-called 'affordable' homes that are not actually affordable, telling people to 'save up and buy' is unacceptable. Only social home building will end homelessness.' '

The former squaddie, who spoke to The Mail on Sunday on the condition of anonymity, said: 'What I find particularly troubling is that this was not a message I had wanted incorporated – I had approached Shelter to tell my own personal story, after being encouraged by them to do so, and had trusted them with a detailed and deeply personal account of experiences I found difficult to revisit.

A homeless veteran begs at the entrance to Victoria station in London (File image)

'Yet a political issue concerning migrants was subsequently introduced, and I was forced to promote a particular message within the story. 

'I regard that as an attempt to turn my personal experience into political propaganda that I had never consented to.

'I believe there is a serious public-interest question about how charities solicit and use the stories of vulnerable people, and whether those people are genuinely being given a voice, or are instead being used and abused to lend emotional credibility to, in this case, an organisation's open borders and pro-migration messaging.'

The soldier's outrage was matched by Conservative MP Katie Lam, the party's local government and housing spokesman, who accused Shelter of trying to use a vulnerable individual as a 'political pawn' in support of 'an ideological Left-wing campaign'.

Ms Lam said: 'If Shelter are taking donations on the basis that they're helping to get homeless people off the streets, that should be their only focus. 

'Putting pro-migrant propaganda in the mouth of a veteran is not only appalling on an individual basis, it's a total betrayal of people who've given them money in good faith.'

The anonymous veteran grew up in care before joining the Army, in which he served from 2018 to 2023, including in Ukraine and Eastern Europe, before leaving due to mental ill-health and knee injuries.

He said his local council, Chesterfield, compounded his nightmare experience of trying to find accommodation after being left homeless 'through no fault of my own'. 

A senior housing officer asked questions about his military service, including whether he had 'killed anyone in places such as Iraq', which he says he found 'deeply distressing'.

A spokesman for Shelter said it has now apologised to the veteran, adding: 'We truly value people sharing their lived experience of the housing emergency with Shelter. 

Our approach to working with one of our storytellers was not the right one in this instance, and we are sorry for that. Our commitment to telling people's stories in an authentic way is vitally important, and we are taking the learnings from this forward.'

Shelter has raked in millions of taxpayers' pounds over recent years, including government grants worth nearly £27million between 2021 and 2025.

Chesterfield Borough Council said although it could not comment on individual cases, it was 'not council policy' to ask such questions as to whether those in the services had killed anyone.

A spokesman added: 'We recognise why such a question could be distressing for an individual.

'Our officers follow national homelessness legislation and guidance, which recognises that military service can affect a person's housing situation, well-being and ability to cope with civilian life. 

It is important that we understand those needs so that we can provide appropriate advice and support.'