CORBYN DISHES OUT DOUGHNUTS
LABOUR leader Jeremy Corbyn visited Swansea yesterday, hinting at a brighter future for Wales under a prospective Labour government and reaffirming his opposition to a no-deal Brexit.
Mr Corbyn’s tour of the city started at a community project at the Pavilion in Jersey Park, Port Tennant, where he engaged with children and families over homemade tomato pasta and doughnuts.
The lunch club at Jersey Park Pavilion uses donated food from local businesses to feed hungry families in St Thomas and beyond.
It’s a lifeline for many families, especially during the summer holidays when a lack of free school meals leaves a dent in parents’ wallets.
Flanked by Swansea East MP Carolyn Harris, Mr Corbyn said: “These children wouldn’t get a lunch normally, in school they would get a free lunch but during holidays they don’t.
“For many families and many children summer holidays are not a time of joy, they’re a time of stress.”
Hailing the Welsh Labour Government’s success in providing free school meals and cutting tuition fees, Mr Corbyn added that “there is an issue, and that is the level of funding that comes from central government [for education spending in Wales].”
The lunch club project is run by around 10 volunteers who are committed to helping those in need locally.
The Pavilion was derelict until a local couple took it upon themselves to apply for grant funding to transform it into a community space.
Cynthia and David Lloyd are the beating heart of the Pavilion, collecting donated food from Greggs and Morrisons as well as cash donations from local businesses and people in the community.
“We feed anyone who comes through the door, wherever they come from. We feed adults as well as children, there’s no stigma,” said Cynthia. “Some days we prepare as many as 130 meals.”
Eileen Charles, from St Thomas, has used the lunch club every day for the past four weeks, taking her grandson Levi along to meet other children and enjoy a healthy meal.
“It means so much because the children here would be going without food if not for this place. The staff here are marvellous I really don’t know what we’d do without it now.”
Mr Corbyn got stuck in and helped out in the kitchen, serving cakes to children who were more focused on whether they wanted a custard or jam doughnut than the leader of the opposition’s Brexit stance.
When asked about his reason for visiting Swansea – the second time he has been to Wales this month after a visit to Machynlleth earlier in the week – Mr Corbyn spoke about wanting to improve education funding
in Wales and the possible negative effects of a no-deal Brexit on the Welsh economy.
“Labour are a party that are utterly determined to stop a cliff-edge nodeal exit from the European Union on October 31. We represent people who voted both leave and remain in the referendum. People who voted leave didn’t vote to lose their jobs, didn’t vote for deregulation of our economy.
“Boris Johnson will take us straight into the arms of Donald Trump and deregulation will follow, so Labour will take every action it can in Parliament to prevent a no-deal exit and ensure people in this country have the choice between remain and nodeal, leave or any other option that’s put there.”
He had enjoyed his trip to Machynlleth, saying a highlight was a Latin music festival: “I enjoy the more cultural aspects of life as well as the more mundane political aspects of life,” Mr Corbyn added.
Job creation was another hot topic for the Labour leader. He reiterated his commitment to a tidal lagoon in Swansea Bay to create jobs and “an electricity of the future that is carbon-neutral and sustainable”.
The Labour leader is still committed to tabling a motion of no confidence in Prime Minister Boris Johnson when Parliament returns from summer recess on Tuesday. A meeting of all opposition leaders will be held next week to discuss options.
“All the opposition parties are going to have to vote together on this if a vote of no confidence is to be successful,” he concluded.
Mr Corbyn later spent time at a closed meeting with Labour Party members in West Cross before a schduled trip to Swansea Bay, the prospective placement of the tidal lagoon.