Esther McVey in ‘class war’ with multi-millionaire Housing and Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick

Two Cabinet ministers are at loggerheads in a ‘class war’ over the Government’s policy on housing.

The row involves multi-millionaire Housing and Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick and his deputy Esther McVey, who is from a ‘blue collar’ background.

In recent months there have been heated discussions in the department over how the Government should be spending its housing cash – and which voters it should be targeting.

It is understood that Cambridge graduate Mr Jenrick, 38, a rising star in Westminster who has been an MP for just six years, wants to prioritise traditional Tory policies of helping voters on to the housing ladder.

But he has clashed with Miss McVey, 52, a former Barnardo’s child from Liverpool who has argued for money to go into more council housing to help the working-class voters who switched from Labour at the last election.

The Conservative Party manifesto promised to both increase home ownership and to increase the supply of social housing and affordable homes.

Mr Jenrick, who has been tipped as a future Tory leader, owns four properties with his wife, including a £2.9million Westminster townhouse and a 17th century manor house in Herefordshire

A Whitehall source said: ‘It’s a difficult dynamic. Jenrick wants to help more people to buy their own homes, he wants the Government to focus on owner-occupation. But Esther says we should be building more council and social housing. There’s no love lost there.’

The two ministers first worked together in 2015 when Miss McVey was Mr Jenrick’s boss in the Department for Work and Pensions.

She was employment minister and the recently-elected Mr Jenrick was her Parliamentary private secretary – a ‘bag carrier’ on the bottom rung of the ministerial ladder.

Miss McVey lost her Wirral West seat in the election that year but returned as MP for Tatton in 2017 and was promoted to Work and Pensions Secretary by Theresa May.

She resigned after just ten months over Brexit and was out of Cabinet before new PM Boris Johnson made her housing minister last year – under Mr Jenrick.

At the Tory party conference last year Miss McVey revealed she spent the first two years of her life as a Barnardo’s child after being placed in foster care by her parents.

She returned to her family – who owned a demolition business – in the Liverpool suburb of West Derby and told delegates her story gave the message that ‘anyone can succeed given the opportunity’.

Miss McVey read law at Queen Mary University of London before launching a media career, presenting on children’s TV and GMTV, then setting up a business training firm.

Mr Jenrick, who has been tipped as a future Tory leader, owns four properties with his wife, including a £2.9million Westminster townhouse and a 17th century manor house in Herefordshire.

Born in Wolverhampton, Mr Jenrick read history at St John’s College Cambridge before becoming a successful corporate lawyer in London and Moscow, then a director at auctioneers Christie’s.

He was the youngest minister in Mrs May’s government, as Exchequer Secretary, before being appointed Housing Secretary by Mr Johnson.

Last night a source close to Mr Jenrick denied any differences between the pair, saying they were ‘on the same page’.

They added: ‘Rob and Esther have a good relationship. Rob has been clear he is very focused on home ownership and I think that’s the same for Esther.’

In recent months there have been heated discussions in the department over how the Government should be spending its housing cash – and which voters it should be targeting [File photo]