Making Work Pay

Over the past year I’ve received more emails than ever from constituents worried about their futures. Many fear redundancies or being behind on rent. Others still have a job but have lost working hours in their zero-hour contracts or their employers have fired them and offered to rehire them on worse terms than before. For many people, the post Covid workplace is even less secure and less dignified than before.

Labour’s newly announced deal for working people would change that, with an immediately increased minimum wage of £10 an hour, protection against unfair dismissal, sick pay for everyone and a right to flexible working.  We’d also cancel the cruel Universal Credit cut that will be devastating for six million families who face losing £1,000 a year when they can ill afford it.  Read my latest column in the Ham & High on the need for dignified, secure work for all.

Summer NHS crisis

5.5 million people are now waiting for hospital appointments – the highest on record – and demand for GP appointments and visits to A&E are soaring.  Summer is supposed to be the quietest time for our precious NHS but with the backlog from the pandemic it’s anything but.  If the Government doesn’t act now and provide the NHS the resources it needs to tackle these immediate challenges and, crucially, deal with the longer-term staffing problems, capacity concerns and crisis in social care the problem is only going to get worse.  I’ll continue to raise questions when Parliament returns, particularly around access to GP appointments as it’s vital people have access to telephone and face-to-face care and vulnerable people don’t find themselves struggling to access vital primary care.

Opening up opportunities for all our kids
We only get one childhood, yet ten years of Tory Governments have seen too many children denied experiences that set them up for learning and for life.  Extra-curricular activities are in freefall, especially for kids from the poorest backgrounds, and I’ve seen that first hand as Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Swimming where so many children are leaving primary school without this basic, lifesaving skill.  Labour’s Children’s Recovery Plan would change that, with a starting ambition that all children can take part in ten life-enhancing activities by the time they’re ten, with a clear plan on how to achieve it.  If the Tories won’t step up – a Labour Government would.

Cleaning Up Fashion
As Co-Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Ethics & Sustainability in Fashion, I am pleased to have published our Cleaning up Fashion report which you can read here.  In light of the global pandemic and the evidence we heard: from non-payment of Bangladeshi factory workers, the Uighur crisis with its implications on cotton manufacture and closer to home the Leicester scandal and its impacts on our fast fashion sector, the report outlines the escalating concerns and issues impacting the supply chain.  It also highlights the unsustainable consequences of the overproduction of garments and outlines the opportunities for a just transition towards a future well-being economy. This would support businesses to be more sustainable, workers to be paid fairly for their labour and scope the possibilities for innovation to support greater circularity of finite resources. In the lead up to COP26 this has never been more important or timely.

Build More Social Housing
Every day I hear from constituents in desperate housing need and across the country 1.5 million people are living in overcrowded social homes, an increase of 44% in just five years.  The problem is getting worse because of a decade of Tory underinvestment in social housebuilding, despite local councils own best efforts. That’s why I’m backing Shelter’s #BuildSocialHousing campaign and why I always object to planning applications that don’t provide the genuinely affordable housing our community actually needs.