Letter from Parliament – Tony Lloyd MP

My week started with a campaign day in North Wales, in the seaside town of Llandudno (a lovely town – but you wouldn’t choose to go on holiday there in the last week of October).

This is a Conservative held marginal seat for Labour, therefore it is important to get Labour’s message across, particularly on Budget day, to see the effects that austerity has had on towns like Llandudno, along with Rochdale and many others in the North West. 

This week in the Shadow Cabinet Meeting, the key item on the agenda was again, the Budget and the preparation for the debate on it in the main chamber. As you are probably aware, Philip Hammond delivered the Budget on Monday 29 October and to say the least, it was a major disappointment. The government’s much promised end of austerity gives very little to social care and social services and nothing to our school children and police. 

Another meeting was held to discuss Labour towns. Tristram Hunt (Director of the Victoria Albert Museum) also attended as a guest speaker. He discussed how the arts are an important aspect in the regeneration of towns. I therefore asked if the Victoria Albert Museum could send some collections to towns like Rochdale and I was given a sympathetic response. 

I attended the national launch of ‘Prepared to Save a Life Campaign’. The aim of this campaign is to get more people trained in emergency first aid. Today in the UK, every 7 minutes someone will have a heart attack and 180 people will die as a result. 1 in 5 adults will witness someone collapse who needs immediate first aid and the majority of people do not act. The Community Save a Life Scheme have created a free course that provides basic lifesaving skills for all. They have set an objective of training over 250,000 people within the next 12 months across the UK. An ambassador of the scheme, Matthew Watson, aged 13, who is the youngest person to have completed the course, attended the launch and said, “if I can do it, anybody can”. 

Robin Parker, former Mayor of Rochdale and Peter Sheldon visited me in parliament to discuss CAMRA (Campaign for Real Ale) and the current pressures pubs are facing regarding high business rates. I have heard from many of my constituents over the past few months who are worried about the future of our local pubs. I have therefore written to the Chancellor, asking for his intervention to help ease the pressures on the industry. 

I also attended the launch of ‘Raise the Rate’, a national campaign which is aimed at increasing education funding for 16 to 18-year olds. Sixth Form Colleges are currently the worst-off in terms of funding from the government in the education sector and received very little help in this week’s Budget. The campaign is pressing for a £760 increase per student, this amount is described as the absolute minimum required to bring student services to the required level. This extra funding would really benefit our local students at Rochdale Sixth Form College and Hopwood Hall - I am therefore supporting this campaign. 

Myself and other local Greater Manchester MPs met to discuss the Greater Manchester Local Industrial Strategy, along with Greg Clark, Secretary of State and Cllr Sir Richard Leese, Deputy Mayor. We discussed how Greater Manchester is developing its local industrial strategy which will provide a framework for aligning local and national decision-making and investment - to create a more inclusive economy where all Greater Manchester residents can contribute to, and benefit from, growth.

The All Party Parliamentary Group for Kashmir has now launched a report on Human Rights. Hopefully this will be a positive step forward on the road to peace and an end to violence in the region. 

The Labour party held a celebration to commemorate Black History Month, which was particularly poignant this year considering the Windrush scandal. The Windrush generation and many other black communities enrich the UK socially, politically and culturally. As a Labour party, we recommit our pledge to defending their rights and celebrate the strength and unity of our diverse country. 

I also attended a performance of ‘Just above Dogs’, a play which tells the story of two brothers from Ireland who came to London looking for work on building sites. The title derisively reflects upon the boarding house notices of the time warning: “No Blacks, No Irish, No dogs”. The performance highlighted the contribution of Irish migrants in building modern Britain and how that legacy might now be better recognised and celebrated.

Liz McInnes led a debate which I attended on hospice funding. The NHS pay award set out by the Government is very welcome but holds implications for the 220 charitable hospice providers across the UK. It is essential that hospices can offer similar pay to the NHS to attract and retain high-calibre staff. Liz and I both referred to Springhill Hospice during the debate. 

Springhill plays a vital role in Rochdale, taking care of those who are terminally ill and providing support to their loved ones. It is essential that the Government provide additional funding for charitable hospices and help hospices like Springhill so that they can continue to supporttheir patients and their families. 

Back in Rochdale I met with local members of the National Farmers Union to discuss the need for more food to beproduced in Britain to ensure a steady supply. However, there are a number of pressures facing the industry – particularly supermarkets, which offer very low prices for farmers’ produce. Farmers are also being hit by the increase in crime,which combined with the current under-funding of the police (and urban areas taking priority), is particularly damaging.  

I then met with our local coroner to discuss the current service for Rochdale, as well as holding my weekly advice bureau. Then, at the weekend I appeared on the Sunday Politics show and did some more campaigning within Labour marginal seats in West Yorkshire. These are Conservative held seats, which Labour aims to win.