Children’s Wellbeing Bill vote
I spoke in favour of the Children’s Wellbeing Bill yesterday - and set out why I couldn’t support the Tory Party’s amendment.
Let’s be clear: the Tories shamefully tried to scrap legislation that will help keep children safe - they just tacked a call for an inquiry to the end of a ‘wrecking’ amendment.
The amendment wouldn’t even have required the Government to set up a new inquiry. But had it gone through, it would have meant that important measures to safeguard children would have been delayed by months.
You can read what the vote was actually on here.
Sky News has a good summary:
However, it’s important to note that had the amendment passed, it would not actually have forced the government to launch an inquiry.
It would instead simply have killed the legislation, which is focused on early years education
Kemi Badenoch even used this vote to raise money for the Conservative Party. It’s disgusting, gutter politics.
This week’s Bill was about taking action that the Child Sexual Abuse Inquiry called for: a duty to report. Making sure that vulnerable kids don’t fall through the gaps. As well as keeping the costs of uniforms down and protecting teachers’ pay.
The empty gesture politics from the Tories dangerous and shameful posturing, and an insult to survivors.
My short speech from the debate is below:
The Bill represents a real step towards closing the gaps through which children are falling. Parents and carers in Birmingham Northfield will welcome the measures in the Bill to help keep the cost of school uniforms down, to extend free breakfast clubs to every primary school, and to tackle the profiteering by the pirates of the high needs, which my hon. Friend the Member for Mansfield (Steve Yemm) spoke about so convincingly.
I agree with Members from across the House who have said that beyond the Bill, we need to see progress in this Parliament on our children’s happiness and on SEND. We cannot lose sight of the fact that the new duty to report safeguarding concerns will protect children and save lives. May I say how welcome it is to see in the Bill the name of the safeguarding Minister, the hon. Member for Birmingham Yardley (Jess Phillips)? Child abuse is the cruellest and most cowardly of crimes, and few have done as much as her to champion victims. The public hounding that we have seen in the past week, which some Members of this House have failed to condemn, represents a threat to public safety, a disgrace to public life and an insult to survivors of grooming and abuse.
Some of my constituents will take an interest in the vote on the Conservative amendment as well as on the Bill. I want to be clear: the amendment is a lengthy hodgepodge of objections to the Bill, and I fundamentally disagree with it; it would have the effect of delaying action on safeguarding.
I conclude by saying to Opposition Front Benchers that if they continue with the opportunistic weaponising of the most sensitive and serious issues, which we have learned over the last day has extended to using this matter as a fundraising opportunity, they will remain in opposition and will deserve to do so.