Parliament’s duty

Rashford sets benchmark

THE GOVERNMENT will try to dismiss today’s Commons debates and votes on lockdown welfare support, provision of free school meals and remote learning as stunts by Labour on a designated Opposition Day – Dominic Raab, the Foreign Secretary, admitted as much in his media interviews yesterday.

Yet, while Labour’s call for the temporary £20 a week increase in Universal Credit to be extended beyond the current March 31 cut-off appears to be a pre-emptive strike ahead of Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s Budget, it would be disingenuous of the Government to be dismissive of the concerns that will inevitably be raised by MPs on all sides.

Not only has the footballer Marcus Rashford exposed, once again, scandalous shortcomings over school meals as he, himself, continues to set the agenda, but the Department for

Education’s complacency over remote learning, and supply of laptops, is another example of why Boris Johnson should have sacked Gavin Williamson, the indecisive and, frankly, inept Education Secretary, long ago.

Yet the issue is far more profound than laptops. Many students also don’t have access to reliable broadband – a point made very forcefully by Mark Jones, principal of Leeds City College, in today’s edition of The Yorkshire Post – and the so-called digital divide will become even more pronounced unless this is addressed too.

Instead of using these debates to expose divisions, and little else, Ministers and MPs from all parties should work out how best to advance the issues as part of the levelling up agenda. It is what the country, and Mr Rashford in particular, expects of them at this time.