I have spent the last few days at the Labour Party Conference 2015 in Manchester.
Clearly, there are many political issues that require significant attention.
I spoke with Liz Kendall MP, Shadow Minister for Care and Older People, about the long NHS waiting times and the desperate need to invest in high quality dementia care in Meriden. High quality care saves money through better patient outcomes, and less time in hospitals.
I met Ed Balls MP, Shadow Chancellor, who spoke of a Labour government that needs to invest in our country, not starve it of resource, such as large scale house building so young people can own a home one day without paying extortionate rents to private landlords. Housing benefit is often needed to subsidise private landlords; in a housing environment where people are squeezed and struggle to pay bills.
I met Harriet Harman MP, Deputy Leader, who emphasised that the Labour Party is light years ahead in terms of having women and ethnic minority candidates - the Tory Party is in the dark ages and often reserves positions of high office for a public school elite. This is unfair and unrepresentative.
I met Chuka Umunna, who has spoken this week about Labour's commitment to increase the minimum wage to at least £8 by 2020. People deserve to be paid fairly for their hard work, and low wages mean businesses are subsidised by the state through benefits. Without these hard working people, there is no business.
On this occasion though, I felt very strongly about the need to stress the importance of early intervention to help children in deprived areas. This is a live issue in Meriden.
I spoke to both Tristram Hunt MP Shadow Secretary for Education and Steve McCabe MP, Shadow Education Minister, to stress how important this issues is.
Below is the press release that went out:
"Tom McNeil, Labours Parliamentary Candidate for Meriden, raised the protection of Sure Start Centres at the Labour Party’s Annual Conference in Manchester. At a number of meetings and discussions with Shadow Ministers, Tom reinforced the importance of the Centres and their role in supporting some of the most vulnerable children and families in local communities:
“It's right Sure Start Centres are at the top of Labour's agenda. We live in a society that is clearly very unequal. Many of the benefits of being brought up in a more comfortable environment, like being read to as a child, having good role models, good quality housingand a good diet, aren’t always available to poorer families. Children's centres provide the opportunitiesthat many families desperately need.”
Tom also discussed how this issue isn't just one of inequality, it's one of economics. He highlighted how Solihull Council, in the Meriden constituency, are cutting the children's services budget by 30% and planning to close numerous children's centres. This is despite the fact that 175,000 children in the West Midlands are suffering from poverty.
Tom said “Some areas of Meriden are in the top 10% of deprived areas in the country. In Meriden 4,530 people are living in fuel poverty, 31,452 people needed the NHS but had to wait over a week to see a GP, the numbers of working people on housing benefit went up by 47%. This creates a stressful situation for families and Labour's Sure Start Centres are a big part of the solution.”
Tom called on the Labour Party to keep their promise to restore early intervention at the heart of working with families and children."
