Emma has responded to the first Queen’s Speech of the new Parliament by saying that the Tories should be judged on their record, and that David Cameron’s claims that he would lead a ‘one nation’ government did not match up with the reality of the last five years.
Emma said that people in South Shields had suffered under five years of austerity, and that the extra cuts promised by David Cameron’s government would make life even tougher. She also shared her concern that there were no measures in the speech to make work pay or protect the NHS, and said she was astonished that the Tories had ignored these important issues.
She promised that Labour MPs would fight hard as the official Opposition to prevent the Tories from inflicting more pain on poor and disadvantaged people in Britain. She said that the Government’s narrow majority meant that Labour had the potential to rein in the worst impulses of the Tory party, and said that opposition to Tory plans to repeal the Human Rights Act and the Hunting Act had already proved that opposition could be effective.
Emma said:
“David Cameron wants to pretend that after the election the country is united behind his party, but what has really happened is that his leadership has deeply divided our country. People living on low incomes saw their lives get much tougher under the last Government, and in places like the North East the massive cuts to public services did a huge amount of damage.
“This Queen’s Speech shows that David Cameron wants to go even further down that path, and so it looks as though people on lower incomes can not expect a better deal as long as he is in Downing Street. There should have been bills to make work pay and to rescue our NHS in this speech, but they were sadly nowhere to be found. If this Parliament is going to make a positive difference to people’s lives it is more likely to be because of the hard work of Labour MPs in opposition than anything in this Queen’s Speech.”
Emma will deliver her own response to the Tories’ Queen’s Speech in the House of Commons next week.