MP slams government poverty of ambition

MP Helen Jones has made an outspoken attack on Government policy, as outlined in the recent Queen’s Speech.
The Warrington North MP said the content of the speech was “marked
by a poverty of ambition” and “failed to articulate any vision for the future”.
It certainly did nothing for Warrington, she said.
Ms Jones (pictured) said government ministers should listen to people in to
find out exactly what was needed to improve people’s lives.
She said: “If they talked to people in constituencies such as mine, they would know what is happening.
“There are people in work who fear they are going to lose their
job. There are parents who fear their children will never have a home of their own and never do as well as them.
“There are grandparents who worry about their grandchildren being out of work. Yet there is nothing in this Queen’s Speech for
them.
“In parts of my constituency youth unemployment is up by 43 per cent.
“My local hospital is losing hundreds of posts, many in the front line. It has breached its accident and emergency waiting times on 14 occasions in the last 26 weeks.
“Yet the same Ministers who have wasted £3 billion on an unnecessary
re-organisation and whose department paid back £2.2 billion to the Treasury have no plans to tackle this. They would rather see skilled nurses and dedicated health assistants on the dole than admit they should change course.”
The MP said places like Warrington need more homes for those who want to get a foot on the ladder and homes for rent – not the homes for commuters which developers want to build.
She said: “ This country – the seventh richest in the world – is shamed by the fact that thousands of its people rely on food banks. Yet we heard nothing in this speech about plans to tackle poverty, much of which, we should remember, is in-work poverty.
“We heard nothing about encouraging employers to pay a living wage, and nothing about developing the training and skills people need in order to
improve their lives and get a better deal for their families.
“Yet one thing the Government are very good at is transferring blame. They are saying to people in this country: ‘The flatlining economy and rising unemployment is not the Chancellor’s fault or the Prime Minister’s fault. It’s your sister’s fault for going on maternity leave. It’s your neighbour’s fault for being sick. It’s your cousin’s fault for having a spare bedroom.
“To pretend all these things about the people who have lost their jobs in my constituency after years of work, and the people who are sick or disabled, who would like nothing better than to get a job, is
an insult to those decent people. “