Letter from Parliament - Tony Lloyd

Date published: 07 March 2019

The National Education Union held a meeting in Parliament to discuss school budget cuts. I think most people will agree that providing a good standard of education is one of the most important roles for our government. However, our teachers, parents and children see every day the impact cuts are having on our children’s education.

It is a huge issue in Rochdale, with figures showing an annual funding shortfall of over £6.5 million. We are therefore urging central government to address the funding gap facing our schools which is expected to reach £3billion nationally by 2024/25.

You might no longer think it, but climate change is still an enormous priority, not just for us but for people and countries across the globe and it is frightening how little our government is doing to tackle it. Last year, the IPCC’s (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) report set out the dangers of global warming beyond 1.5 degrees and the need for ‘rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented’ change in all sectors of the economy.

 

 

The Climate Coalition held a meeting where I pledged my support to the “Show the Love” campaign. This is an annual celebration for the people, places and life that we love and want to protect from climate change.

With snap frosts in April, the warmest UK summer on record in 2018, as well the warmest February to date, there's never been a more poignant time to #ShowTheLove.

• www.rochdaleonline.co.uk/news-features/2/news-headlines/126420/rochdale-temperatures-mark-first-winter-to-see-mercury-rise-over-20c

I would also like to express my admiration for the thousands of schoolchildren who walked out of classes to join the UK-wide climate strike amid growing anger at the failure of politicians to tackle the escalating crisis. Some, including Theresa May, are condemning the children for “wasting lesson time”, I, on the other hand applaud them. It is their future we are endangering, and we need to take their concerns seriously. 

In my role as Shadow Secretary for Northern Ireland, and as part of Labour’s Brexit strategy, I spent a day in Dublin, to meet with senior members of the Irish Government including Simon Coveney, Deputy Prime Minister. I also met with the leader of the Irish Labour Party and senior politicians from Fianna Fail and Sinn Fein.

I’m determined to find a Brexit solution which protects trade and jobs for Rochdale and sees no hard border across the island of Ireland in order to protect the Good Friday Agreement, which brought peace to Northern Ireland.

Back in Rochdale, I attended the opening of “Turning Point”, Rochdale and Oldham’s Active Recovery service for people with drug and alcohol problems. This support service includes recovery workshops, community detox, peer mentors and the facilitation of residential rehabilitation. Addiction is a brutal and damaging issue, both physically and mentally for the sufferer but also for their loved ones and the people around them. It is therefore great to see this invaluable and competent service coming to Rochdale to help turn people’s lives around.

I attended Hopwood Hall’s Annual Review, where along with some great performances, the college displayed that in the past year they accomplished an achievement rate of 87.1% (this exceeds the national rate by almost 5%), a 100% pass rate across 124 of their courses and a 90% employer satisfaction rate. I would like to congratulate the students and staff at the college for these fantastic results. I also want to pay special tribute to the role of Derek O’Toole, Hopwood Hall’s Principal, who has guided the college to its present tremendous success rate, and who has announced his forthcoming retirement.

 

 

The first Co-op Fairtrade Fortnight Coffee Morning was hosted by Hebron Church recently. At Fairtrade Coffee Mornings across the country, people are invited to sample a range of Co-op Fairtrade products including coffee, tea and chocolate. It is encouraging and exciting to see more products emerging that are as fair to produce and trade as they for consumers. The Co-op is actively working to support local communities whilst recognising that we increasingly live in a global world.

I had a conference call with the leaders of Rochdale Borough Housing to discuss the decision regarding the Seven Sisters in Lower Falinge, particularly the decision to demolish some of the tower blocks. I’ll be meeting with local people and councillors soon to discuss the potential impacts of this work on the community.

Representatives from Moors for the Future Partnership led a guided walk onto Moss Moor near the M62 and explained the history of blanket bog restoration and how healthy moors can protect against threats including climate change. Blanket bog is a covering of moss that builds up over the years and centuries, and that’s what a lot of the moors used to be, but a lot has been lost in recent years.

For over 15 years, the Partnership has been working to reverse the damage caused by pollution from coal-fired industries. These industries have largely gone but now the moors are under threat again, this time by climate change. Blanket bog can offer so many benefits including natural flood risk reduction, vital in places like Littleborough and Rochdale town centre, who suffered in the Boxing Day floods of 2015.

Also, for all the people who live in Rochdale and around the South Pennines, they are a wonderful place to walk and get away from it all. 

 

 

The Colombian Peace Process was the topic of another important meeting. Whilst Colombia may seem a far away country from us, the instability that exists across that nation allows for criminal gangs to grow and export drugs which can then be transported and sold in the UK. The overwhelming majority of cocaine comes from Colombia, so we have a real interest in making sure that the Colombian Peace Process helps stabilise the country as well as bring about human rights and gender equality to all its citizens.

A recent report, ‘Conception to the Age of 2’, was discussed in Parliament. This stresses the importance of support services for parents and children, during which time research suggests there is the most effective interaction between mother and child. Most of us know instinctively that we should invest in support for mothers and babies, particularly in families where the need is greatest. It’s unacceptable that the current government has reduced the availability of Sure Start Centres and similar support. These centres were opened by the last Labour government and have been proven to provide essential support for parents and young children.

The recent increased tensions between India and Pakistan over the region of Kashmir is a really worrying development. There has been an under reported low-level military activity against the civilian population on the Indian side of Kashmir, with ongoing attacks and deaths. The conflict has worsened again recently, including the death of more than 40 Indian soldiers in a suicide attack on 14 February. That attack, like all terrorism, is unacceptable. Fortunately, the return of an Indian pilot shot down by Pakistan has lowered the tension. I applaud that action by the Pakistan Prime Minister, Imran Khan. The whole international community must keep the pressure on to move towards a long-term solution for Kashmir. 

I don’t always agree with Conservative Ministers, but I applaud David Gauke, Secretary of State for Justice, who has called for an end to short term jail sentences of 6 months and under. Statistics show that reoffending rates for these short sentences are much higher than non-custodial options. What’s worse, in this short space of time, offenders lose their homes and their jobs – which can spiral them back into crime.

I agree with David Gauke that intensive community sentences provide better alternatives to jail. This move will improve reoffending rates, free up space in prisons for more serious crimes and save the tax payer’s money.

Our Transport Secretary has the unusual distinction of his nickname 'Failing Grayling'. He faced scrutiny again over his mis-management of the Brexit ferry contracts. Serious questions are being raised regarding the supply of medicines in the event of a no-deal Brexit. Just over a million people rely on emergency medicines across the UK and we cannot allow their supply to be threatened. To make matters worse, Mr Grayling didn’t even dare face MPs for the debate on these issues in Parliament, instead he sent another MP to speak on his behalf. In the end though, he was dragged to the Commons to answer.

Research into the Secretary of State's mistakes in both his current role and previous roles reveals he has cost the taxpayer £2.7 billion. This money is the sum of the annual salaries of 18,000 nurses and 94,000 secondary school teachers. Labour have therefore called for his immediate resignation.

The government have announced they are intending to scrap the NHS’s key target for accident and emergency patients to be seen within 4 hours. Their current target is for 95% of patients to be seen within this timeframe, however, emergency units haven’t reached this target since 2015. This is truly shocking, if you are failing in your responsibility to provide a critical service, you look at ways to improve to reach the target – not scrap it!

 

 

I spoke recently at a Unison rally to show my support for workers from the Alternative Futures Group, who take care of vulnerable adults. They’ve been told they are going to see a cut in their 'top-up' payments for sleep-in shifts. This is a really unfair assault on already very low paid workers. As a society, we should look after our carers, as anyone of us may need one of those carers to take care of us someday.

Theresa May is trying to buy votes again in Parliament using her ‘Stronger Towns’ initiative. I’d welcome any credible investment in Rochdale and we will obviously need to put a bid in for any monies that are available. But let’s be clear, this is a gimmick. The North West’s share of the Stronger Towns Fund is likely to be £150million, to be split across towns reaching from the Scottish border to the bottom end of Cheshire and that’s much less money than Rochdale has lost alone in government monies.

• www.rochdaleonline.co.uk/news-features/2/news-headlines/126444/stronger-towns-fund-‘too-little-too-late’

Honda car workers from Swindon came to Parliament, following the manufacturer’s intention to close their plant, to urge the British government to do more to persuade the company to stay in the UK. As one of the great successes of the UK car industry this is very important and I met with the workers to show my support.

Every year throughout March, Marie Curie holds the Great Daffodil Appeal to help raise funds to provide care for people affected by terminal illness. People are asked to wear a daffodil throughout the month to show not only their support for the work of Marie Curie nurses, but also to help highlight the many issues that people affected by terminal illness confront. Everyone should have the best quality of care and the best quality of life possible when they are dying. I know from personal experience how much this means.

To mark International Women’s Day, the Freedom Charity visited Parliament to discuss many issues facing women today including the horrific practice of female genital mutilation. Freedom handed out their Red Triangle Badge, the international symbol against FGM, ‘for those who dare to wear it’. Not only do I dare to wear it, but I am proud to and will continue to support any restriction against this barbaric abuse of young women, too many here in Britain, and far too many around the world.

 

 

The Prime Minister has continued in her quest to run down the clock in the Brexit negotiations, to try to force MPs to accept her bad deal or face the consequences of no-deal. Both these options are bad for our country and do not hold enough support in Parliament. Labour is therefore putting forward its alternative Brexit plan which will protect workers’ rights, jobs and our security whilst avoiding a hard border across the island of Ireland. I am calling on the Government to make this the basis of its own negotiations. However, should they fail to do so, Parliament will have to look at all credible options to build a majority.

Not many people want me to support a bad deal when there are other credible options on the table to break the deadlock, I believe Labour’s option may be the one to do it, but if not, we may have to ask the public to choose. Rather than have Theresa May dictate a disastrous deal to us, I would much rather let the people of our country have the final say. Anyway, next week, once again, we’ve been promised ‘the meaningful vote’ which the Prime Minister keeps deferring: she can’t run down the clock again.

Knife crime has rightly hit the headlines after the fatal attacks on two young men recently, including 17-year-old Yousef Makki in Greater Manchester. We now need the government to work with our police but also other public services, schools and youth services. Police numbers do matter in this and when government ministers try to deny, it they are putting lives at risk. The experience of Glasgow, once the murder capital of Britain, is extraordinary. By working across all public services, the city has seen a massive reduction in violence - we’ve got to learn those same lessons.

In practice, this is what I saw in Greater Manchester when we managed to reduce the level of gun crime. There’s no magic wand but we need a government that is prepared to invest in safer communities and that means investing in those public services which can make a difference.