Encouraged by united front against racism

IT continues to be a very busy period in Parliament.

Since my last update, Black Lives Matter has helped to put racial inequality front and centre of political discourse.

I was pleased that Greater Manchester Combined Authority published a statement, signed by all council leaders, expressing revulsion at the murder of George Floyd.

It was encouraging to also see my local council illuminating Stockport Town Hall, and help to unite people standing in solidarity with black people across the world.

With the aviation sector at a virtual standstill during the pandemic, I listened to an update from the CEO of Manchester Airport, Andrew Cowan, and Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham, who discussed the challenges facing the industry.

In addition to urging the

Government to engage more over sectoral support to help businesses survive and mitigate job losses, Mayor Burnham talked about ways to support workers beyond the end of the furlough scheme, including adult conversion courses, a Greater Manchester brokering scheme to match people to parts of the economy that have opportunities and other initiatives such as a future jobs fund.

While airline companies are doing all they can to protect their staff, there are some that aren’t, most notably British Airways (BA), which is laying off all 42,000 of its staff, before rehiring 30,000 on worse pay, terms, and conditions (despite taking millions of pounds of taxpayers money to furlough its staff during the pandemic).

As a result, I wrote to Prime Minister Boris Johnson to urge him to review BA’s allocation of its lucrative airport slots.

Several jobs in our constituency depend on Manchester Airport and BA and I will do all I can to support these people.

I am delighted to join fellow local MPs Angela Rayner and Andrew Gwynne to push the Government for a new passenger rail link between Stockport and Ashtonunder-Lyne, stopping in Denton and Reddish South, as part of the Restoring Your Failway Fund.

The route will help to breathe life into parts of Stockport and reconnect and reinvigorate areas of this community that have been underfunded by this Government for too long.

We also celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Equal Pay Act, a seminal moment when the Labour government, led by Employment Secretary Barbara Castle and inspired by 187 women from the Ford Dagenham factory, introduced legislation to ensure the same pay and conditions as men.

But there remains plenty of work to do to close the gender pay gap as, half a century on, women are still waiting for parity.

Finally, I am supporting calls from local Walk Ride groups in calling for greater investment in cycle and walkways.

A cycleway on A6 would go a long way to making our roads safer for cyclists, boost health and help to address environmental concerns and I’m hopeful that Manchester City Council and Stockport Council can work together to deliver this.