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Tag: Speeches

  • Carolyn Harris – 2020 Speech on Free School Meals

    Carolyn Harris – 2020 Speech on Free School Meals

    Below is the text of the speech made by Carolyn Harris, the Labour MP for Swansea East, in the House of Commons on 16 June 2020.

    Holiday hunger is not a new phenomenon, and since the summer of 2017 in Swansea East, I, my team, the Swansea Ospreys, football and rugby clubs, local businesses, community groups, Big Food and Castell Howell, which are members of the wholesale federation, have provided food for local children—not just in the summer but during the Christmas holidays. I have lost count of the families we have supported, but it is easily in excess of 30,000.

    This summer, we thought our lunch club would be able to stand down, as the Welsh Labour Government recognised the issue and introduced a continuation of free school meals throughout the holidays. However, my grand, quiet summer has been interrupted by coronavirus and over the past 12 weeks we have been busy preparing and delivering more than 20,000 meals to vulnerable families across Swansea. Again, that was achieved with the support of Swansea Council, wonderful volunteers, Mecca bingo, and huge food donations from members of the wholesale federation—ironically, one of the few sectors not to have received any Government pandemic support.

    The Welsh Labour Government’s early decision to guarantee funding for free school meals throughout the school holidays is testament to their understanding of real-life issues and their ability to react to this real-life issue. We are hearing more and more harrowing stories of parents going without in order to feed their children—not because they are making thoughtless decisions on what to spend their money but because they do not have the money in the first place.

    Almost two months ago, the Welsh Labour Government made an announcement about continued funding for free school meals during the summer holidays. I welcome the fact that today the Prime Minister and the Government have finally, after immense pressure, U-turned on their original decision—again, following Wales’s lead—but I question why they did not make the obvious and compassionate decision in the first place, as that would have saved many families a lot of anxiety in recent weeks. Many families were concerned that during the school holidays they would be sending their children to bed with empty bellies. Welsh Labour led the way, and I am proud to be the deputy leader of Welsh Labour. [Hon. Members: “Hear, hear!] Thank you. I wonder: without ​huge pressure from Labour Members, Conservative Back Benchers and an international football star, and a public outcry, would the Prime Minister ever have reached the right decision and made a U-turn on this policy? That is food for thought, but I am afraid that the jury is out to lunch on the answer.

  • Kerry McCarthy – 2020 Speech on Free School Meals

    Kerry McCarthy – 2020 Speech on Free School Meals

    Below is the text of the speech made by Kerry McCarthy, the Labour MP for Bristol East, in the House of Commons on 16 June 2020.

    I congratulate Marcus Rashford on spearheading this campaign. He is an amazing role model, both on the pitch and off it. His speaking out on how his mother struggled to make ends meet and how he would turn up at his friends’ houses in the hope of being fed resonated across the country, and there are far too many other young kids like Marcus out there.

    Last year, I was one of the MPs who served on the children’s future food inquiry, and we heard devastating accounts from children, not just about raw and real hunger, but about living on leftovers, scraps or cheap food with little to no nutritional value. It should not take a famous footballer speaking out about his experiences as a child; the Government should have listened to those children back then in April last year and implemented the children’s right to food charter.

    Of course I welcome this U-turn, but we need to embed it, so that we do not have to have this argument every time the school holidays come around. This move alone will not be enough. For far too many children, their free school meal is the only decent meal they get, and the under-fives do not even get that.

    In Bristol, we will still be running our healthy holidays scheme this year, which is about far more than just providing a meal, but it looks as though we will have to do so without Government support. Feeding Bristol was fortunate enough to be a holiday hunger pilot in 2018, but last year we were not so lucky and we do not know why. We got nothing from the Government, but we raised £100,000 and we did it ourselves, albeit to a more limited degree than we would have liked. In 2020, we again missed out, apparently by just one point, but again we have no idea why. The Mayor of Bristol and I both wrote to the Government asking why some cities and towns were getting six-figure or even seven-figure sums but Bristol was getting nothing. We suggested ​spreading the money more evenly so that many more schemes could be pump-primed, but we have not had a response.

    We know that covid-19 has made many more families financially vulnerable and those who were already vulnerable even more so. I pay a particular tribute to FareShare, which has been fantastic throughout this crisis. Again, let us congratulate Marcus Rashford on raising £20 million for its national effort. In the past week alone, 80 tonnes of food came to Bristol via FareShare South West, but this is not, as the Government would have it, just about this summer and coping with the fallout from the pandemic. People have been attending food banks in record numbers since the economically illiterate, morally bankrupt policy of austerity was adopted a decade ago. The Government have consistently refused to acknowledge the sheer scale of the problem, to engage with those working on the frontline, or to address the underlying causes of food poverty, and it is time that they did.

  • Kate Osborne – 2020 Speech on Free School Meals

    Kate Osborne – 2020 Speech on Free School Meals

    Below is the text of the speech made by Kate Osborne, the Labour MP for Jarrow, in the House of Commons on 16 June 2020.

    Having been brought up in a single-parent household, I imagine I am one of a small number of MPs who received free school meals; I know exactly what it is likely to struggle to make ends meet.

    No child should have to go without food, and a child’s concentration, alertness and energy are greatly improved with a nutritious meal inside them. As we are one of the richest countries in the world, we must question why in 2020 families are struggling to put food on the table, heat their homes or clothe their children. No family should have to deal with this, and no parent should have to choose between feeding themselves and feeding their children. Sadly, that is often the choice parents face, and it is exactly what would have happened right across the country had this Government not made yet another U-turn today.

    It is a sad fact that one in three children in my constituency are growing up in poverty, and it is shameful that countless families have to endure this painful struggle, day in, day out. I see that struggle at first hand on a daily basis. My inbox regularly contains heartbreaking emails from families forced to rely on food banks to eat and struggling to pay their rent. Staggeringly, food banks have become normalised in society. I remember being outraged when they first started to pop up, as I could not quite believe people were needing to access charitable donations because they did not have enough money to buy food. Now, we all expect that there will be a donation box in the supermarket for food banks that we can donate to. We need to end the normalisation of food banks and to work towards a society where every family have enough money to live on.

    The Welsh Government have already announced that they will provide each eligible child with the equivalent of £19.50 a week over the summer, so it would have ​been deeply heartless for the Government not to fund the estimated £120 million, which will now ensure that children in this country, including 2,605 children in the Jarrow constituency, can eat for the summer holiday period. Not for the first time, the Prime Minister and his Government have found themselves on the wrong side of the argument, and I welcome the fact that they have made yet another U-turn.

    This issue is not about politics; it is about doing the right thing. Marcus Rashford, in his efforts to persuade the Government to see sense on this issue, should be applauded, and I am glad the Government have listened to him, to MPs on both sides and to the whole of the country, who have called for this. If the Government can find billions of pounds to support businesses during this pandemic, it is only right that £120 million has been found to ensure that families and children are provided with food this summer.

  • Jonathan Ashworth – 2020 Comments on Test and Trace App

    Jonathan Ashworth – 2020 Comments on Test and Trace App

    Below is the text of the comments made by Jonathan Ashworth, the Shadow Health Secretary, on 18 June 2020.

    This is unsurprising and yet another example of where the government’s response has been slow and badly managed. It’s meant precious time and money wasted.

    For months tech experts warned ministers about the flaws in their app which is why we wrote to Matt Hancock encouraging the government to consider digital alternatives back in May.

    Ministers must now urgently prioritise building a fully effective test, trace and isolate regime lead by local expertise to break the chains of transmission of this deadly virus.

  • Anneliese Dodds – 2020 Comments on Quantitative Easing

    Anneliese Dodds – 2020 Comments on Quantitative Easing

    Below is the text of the comments made by Anneliese Dodds, the Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, on 18 June 2020.

    Clearly this is an unprecedented intervention by the Bank of England. However, the impact of monetary measures are necessarily limited in the current macroeconomic environment.

    We now need the Government to step up to the plate and take the fiscal measures required. This is especially important given that the UK is lagging behind other nations in announcing its stimulus package. We need a Back to Work Budget with just one focus – jobs, jobs, jobs.

  • Nick Thomas-Symonds – 2020 Comments on National Police Chiefs’ Statement

    Nick Thomas-Symonds – 2020 Comments on National Police Chiefs’ Statement

    Below is the text of the comments made by Nick Thomas-Symonds, the Shadow Home Secretary, on 18 June 2020.

    We welcome the fact that the National Police Chiefs’ Council is planning to take action on racial inequalities. It is critical that communities have faith in the police and feel that they serve everybody equally, as well as ensuring police officers from Black, Asian and ethnic minority backgrounds consider policing an inclusive service.

    There have been huge improvements in policing in recent years, not least following the Macpherson report. However, there is absolutely no room for complacency and, as the Black Lives Matter movement reminds us, we all have a duty to understand what more we can do to tackle racism.

  • Louise Haigh – 2020 Comments on Northern Ireland Roadmap

    Louise Haigh – 2020 Comments on Northern Ireland Roadmap

    Below is the text of the comments made by Louise Haigh, the Shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, on 18 June 2020.

    The lack of detail and engagement from senior Ministers on the most significant change to border management in decades is staggering and irresponsible.

    There are 28 weeks until the new arrangements come into force in Northern Ireland and businesses simply cannot afford to be left in the dark any longer. It is absurd at this stage that so much remains unknown.

    Labour is calling for the Government to publish a clear roadmap for implementation of the Protocol, operational-level detail on the precise checks and requirements that will need to be implemented, and intensive engagement and support for businesses across Northern Ireland. With so little time left, businesses deserve clarity.

  • Rebecca Long-Bailey – 2020 Comments on Lost Teaching Time

    Rebecca Long-Bailey – 2020 Comments on Lost Teaching Time

    Below is the text of the comments made by Rebecca Long-Bailey, the Shadow Education Secretary, on 19 June 2020.

    The funding and the principle of a tutoring scheme is certainly a welcome start but it needs to be backed with a detailed national education plan to get children’s education and health back on track.

    We want to see all pupils return to school safely as soon as possible and repeat our call on the Government to urgently convene a taskforce across the sector to develop detailed plans in collaboration with trade unions, local authorities, parent’s organisations, scientific and health experts.

    The present plans lack detail and appear to be a tiny fraction of the support our pupils need at this critical time. The Government must take its responsibility to support children’s learning and their safe return to school seriously and demonstrate leadership in making this happen.

  • Luke Pollard – 2020 Comments on Government’s Tree Planning Consultation

    Luke Pollard – 2020 Comments on Government’s Tree Planning Consultation

    Below is the text of the comments made by Luke Pollard, the Shadow Environment Secretary, on 19 June 2020.

    The Government missed its tree planting target by 71% last year alone so it needs to do much more. Tree planting, habitat protection and promoting biodiversity must be cornerstones of building back better as we emerge from the coronavirus crisis.

    This is yet another consultation. But the Government needs to show urgency and ambition to tackle the climate crisis, and ministers need to be honest about how far off target they currently are.

  • Nadia Whittome – 2020 Speech on Free School Meals

    Nadia Whittome – 2020 Speech on Free School Meals

    Below is the text of the speech made by Nadia Whittome, the Labour MP for Nottingham East, in the House of Commons on 16 June 2020.

    The idea that children should not go hungry is one that most people would consider an issue of basic morality. I am glad that the Government have now conceded that the free school meals scheme should be extended to cover the summer, but given that the Under-Secretary of State for Education, the hon. Member for Chelmsford (Vicky Ford) was still arguing against this only a few hours ago, it is clear that this is not a moral change of heart, but a result of incredible pressure from campaigners such as Marcus Rashford and the Opposition.

    I would like to ask the Minister about one aspect of the policy. There are many children in this country who have committed no crime but the crime of being migrants —an accident of geography—and who therefore have no recourse to public funds. These pupils have been temporarily eligible for free school meals during the pandemic; will the Minister commit to ensuring that that continues, not just this summer, but as a permanent change in policy?

    It is telling that the Education Secretary should imply that children need access to nutritious, healthy meals only when they are at school. If it is wrong for children to go hungry, it is always wrong for children to go hungry, not just during a global pandemic and not only while they are at school.

    Despite the very welcome U-turn, this Government are by no means let off the hook for their shameful and damning record on child poverty and hunger. In the sixth richest country in the world, there is no excuse for letting a single child go to bed hungry. The fact that 1.3 million children are routinely receiving free school meals shows that something is deeply wrong. We are a wealthy country, but that wealth is not fairly distributed; the wealthiest 10% in our country have about 45% of the wealth. That inequality is only increasing; wages for the majority have been stagnant for the past decade, employment is increasingly insecure and precarious, and we have a standard-of-living slide, all while the rich get richer.

    Even though they may be fed this summer, we will still have approximately one third of children living in poverty. The Government typically respond to this by saying that the best route out of poverty is through work, but that is simply a meaningless platitude in light of the fact that most children who live in poverty have at least one parent in work.

    The Conservative party is the party of the food bank and zero-hour contracts. The Living Wage Foundation calculates the real living wage—not the Government’s made up living wage—based on what people need to get by. It is set at £9.30 per hour outside London and that means that anyone paid below that is on a poverty wage.