I  co-sponsored Labour’s Opposition day motion  on the Government’s severe cuts to local government. Since 2010 local government has had over 60% of its funding cut from Central Government grants and cities have soaked up 74% of this. This is having a disastrous effect on the services local authorities can provide. As well as youth centres, museums and libraries closing, the cuts are deepening the crisis in social care.

The Government’s ‘Fair Funding Review’ threatens to make this situation even worse. It would remove the consideration of deprivation from the funding allocation formula. This is despite the Government’s own research that states deprivation is the second-best predictor of the cost of basic services. I believe it is simply unjustifiable to divert hundreds of millions of pounds in social care funding from deprived Labour Councils towards Tory shires like Surrey and Buckinghamshire.

70% of the Conservative Party’s gains at the 2019 General Election fall within communities that are set to lose out. Labour urged these new Tory MPs to stand up for the communities they were elected to represent. Unfortunately, not a single Tory MP voted in favour of Labour’s motion against these plans.