Coun Tony Dobson

Conservative group leader

OVER the 19 years of being a Hyndburn councillor, I have met numerous Labour supporters who have been passionate about Brexit and the records will show two out of every three people who voted in Hyndburn voted for Brexit.

So you can imagine my shock and amazement when I read the newspapers and watch the TV news to learn that Labour will now be the party of remain and that they also want another referendum to obviously overturn democracy.

Our MP has always been upfront about his wish to remain in the European Union and there is a conflict-of-interest between the wishes of his constituency and his personal beliefs.

Should an MP represent the wishes of his constituency or vote in a way that he feels is best for the country?

I also wanted to highlight one or two other announcements made locally and nationally recently.

A Children’s Funeral Fund to cover the costs of a burial or cremation when a child dies, meaning bereaved parents will not have to worry about money during the hardest time of their lives.

Every year in England an estimated 3,800 children die under the age of 18, and there are a further 2,700 stillbirths.

Bereaved parents can find themselves facing bills of thousands of pounds for burial or cremation fees.

The Children’s Funeral Fund will help to reduce the financial burden for families by reimbursing burial authorities, cremation authorities and funeral directors directly.

The fund will be available regardless of a family’s income, and will also include a contribution towards the cost of a coffin.

At a time of such unimaginable loss, no grieving parent should be faced with the stress and worry of finding the money to cover the cost of their child’s funeral.

While nothing can take away the pain that bereaved families’ experience, this fund will help ease the financial burden.

The Environment Secretary has announced the introduction of Natasha’s Law requiring food businesses to include full ingredient labelling on pre-packaged foods, so we better protect those who suffer from food allergies.

The new law will require food businesses to include full ingredient labelling on pre-packaged foods, in a drive to protect the country’s two million food allergy sufferers.

The new legislation, known as ‘Natasha’s Law’, after Natasha EdnanLaperouse, the teenager who died after suffering an allergic reaction to a Pret a Manger baguette, will tighten the rules by requiring foods that are pre-packed directly for sale to carry a full list of ingredients – giving allergy sufferers greater trust in the food they buy.

Newly released research has shown that the proportion of low-paid workers in Britain has fallen to its lowest level since 1980, showing that people’s hard work and our careful management of the economy is paying off.

Research from the Resolution Foundation has shown that the proportion of low-paid workers in Britain has fallen to its lowest level since 1980, and low pay could be eliminated altogether by the middle of the 2020s.

The research shows that the introduction of the National Living Wage has significantly reduced low pay – from 20.7 per cent of the workforce in 2015 to 17.1 per cent last year.

The number of low-paid workers fell by almost 200,000 last year, including more than 130,000 women and 120,000 people aged 21-30.

This good news follows our action in April to introduce the biggest ever increase to the National Living Wage, boosting the incomes of 1.8 million people by £690 a year.