Yet another U-turn that gives the lie to caring
VIEWPOINTS
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JACK Haynes (Viewpoints, M.E.N.,
June 23) seems to be criticising Keir Starmer and Labour for never issuing meal vouchers to poor children in the summer holidays.
I wonder whether Jack realises that we are in the worst recession for hundreds of years. We need some serious improvement in the way we look after the many children in our society who are in need.
I am not a Labour supporter, but before Marcus Rashford’s excellent letter to Boris Johnson, Starmer had already put a motion on the House of Commons agenda calling for the voucher scheme to be extended over the summer. Johnson had rejected Rashford’s plea one day but, after pressure from 30 Tory MPs, did yet another U-turn the next.
Johnson does a lot of U-turns, so for Jack Haynes to think doing it quickly is to Johnson’s credit is not very sensible, since it merely shows that he often gets things wrong and has to be put right.
Jack Haynes believes that Johnson is a caring Tory, but the Office of the Children’s Commissioner for England has ruled that Johnson was wrong to say that child poverty was falling and that 400,000 fewer families were living in poverty now than in 2010. In addition it was false for him to say that overall poverty levels were falling.
Playing down the extent of poverty, in the cause of defending the past ten years of Tory rule, does not seem very ‘caring.’ The Children’s Commissioner’s report noted that 800,000 people in families lived in relative poverty in 2018/19 compared with 2010/11. So much for caring Tories!
Sam Darby, Burnage Green Party