The Peterborough Evening Telegraph
Mums’ brigade battles squeeze
Mothers raise poverty plight with national politician
Cash- strapped Peterborough mums shared candid accounts of their fight against spending cuts and poverty with a leading national politician. Yvette Cooper MP, Labour’s Shadow Home Secretary and Shadow Minister for Women and Equalities, spent more than two hours in the city speaking individually with the mum sat Westgate Church, in Westgate.
Concerns about further cuts to child tax credit, child care tax credit and child benefit, expected in next week’s Budget, dominated the session.
Ms Cooper said: “What has really struck me was the number of parents that were saying how stressed they were personally.
“And mums not being able to afford bus fares, or tickets if they have older children who want to go to the cinema, because they are feeling so squeezed.”
Issues ranged from rural isolation, affordable childcare and the closure of city play groups.
Bonita Yonga, a mother of four from Paston, said she struggled to afford to take her children swimming and said fellow mums were having nervous breakdowns over continued government cuts.
She said:“The entire mum- my brigade in Peterborough are under pressure on every front, from jobs and childcare to relationships with their partners.”
Tearful mum Rebecca York, from Great Gedding, shared her increasing isolation as a rural mum.
She said: “I can’t go on any more. I’ve a 30 minute journey to my nearest Sure Start group.”
Ms Cooper visit was part of International Women’s Day.