We must end child hunger

This week I signed an open letter to the Prime Minister calling on her to end child hunger in our schools by extending free school meal provision to every primary school child in England.

Edmonton has some of the highest rates of child poverty in the country. Every week, thousands of children in Edmonton and millions across England don’t get enough to eat because their families simply can’t afford it. At the same time, we have more millionaires and billionaires than at any other time in our history. There is more wealth in this country than there has ever been. But while that wealth is stored by a tiny elite at the top, the rest of us are getting paid less, while everything is costing more.

In one of the wealthiest countries on earth, not a single child should go hungry. The Prime Minister is giving away billions in tax cuts and bonuses to millionaires. She is funnelling more than £100 billion to multi-national energy companies. Yet she is refusing to spend a tiny fraction of that to stop children in this country from going hungry.

Politics is about priorities. I know families across Edmonton and the country want the Government to prioritise feeding children over increasing bankers’ bonuses. I hope that the Prime Minister sees sense, listens to the country and extends free school meals to all children.

Ending Fracking Ban is a Damaging Gimmick

I’m appalled by the Government’s decision to end the fracking ban.  It will not do anything to bring down energy prices, will cause untold environmental damage and further set back our attempts to tackle the climate crisis.

The Prime Minister knows that ending the ban on fracking is a terrible idea, but she decided to announce that policy to appeal to the tiny number of Tory party members who elected her this summer. Unfortunately, the country now has to deal with the consequences of her actions.

The UK energy industry is privatised. Opening up fracking or offshore oil sites simply gives international corporations access to more reserves that they can then sell on the international market. As long as our energy sector is privatised it doesn’t matter if we extract more oil from the UK. The UK doesn’t own that oil and has to buy it from the international market at the same price as we would if that oil was extracted anywhere else in the world. We must also consider the fact that the process of fracking is unlikely to bear significant fruit for at least a decade. Where sites are reopened, extensive environmental damage and earthquakes will also be caused.

Furthermore, if countries continue to expand their use of carbon-producing energy sources, we will be unable to stop the climate crisis and civilisation as we know it will be unlikely to survive once we breach 2 degrees Celsius of global warming. For those reasons, I’m strongly opposed to ending the ban on fracking.

To solve the energy crisis, we must bring the energy sector into public ownership and invest in a mass building programme of renewable energy sources and home insulation across the country. That is the only answer to the energy and climate crises.

Government must not abandon Animal Welfare Promises

I’m disgusted that the Tories appear ready to break almost all of their animal welfare pledges.

It now seems likely that the Tory party will drop plans to ban the import of fur and foie gras. In addition, it seems likely that a ban on live exports and importing hunting trophies won’t happen.

I know how important the issue of animal welfare is to many of my constituents. Many of you write to me each week asking me to back the measures the Government has now dropped. I’ve done exactly that and repeatedly called on the Government to get on with it, keep their promise and strengthen animal welfare legislation. But the Government has instead broken another promise and appears ready to use Brexit as an excuse to weaken, rather than strengthen Animal Welfare Legislation.

The Tory Party are showing their true face and they have no intention of doing anything the improve animal welfare in this country. For that to happen we need a Labour Government.

Government Energy Plan Isn’t Enough

This week I’ve been listening carefully to businesses across Edmonton as they have reacted to the Government’s announced cap on commercial energy prices. The verdict is clear. The announcement is welcome but doesn’t go far enough.

There simply isn’t enough clarity or longevity in the plan for local businesses in Edmonton to plan ahead. The announced 6-month cap will leave businesses, schools and other organises still paying extremely burdensome energy prices while being left in the dark about what happens in the new year. That isn’t good enough.

The Government needs to stop taking reactive emergency measures after it’s too late and start proactively setting out long-term measures so that companies can plan over the long term. The Government is encouraging exactly the economic uncertainty that will make any recession deeper and longer.

Once again markets have failed to serve our needs and what’s clear to everybody outside of the Westminster bubble is that privatising our natural resources has failed. We need to urgently return the energy sector to public hands, increase and extend windfall taxes on the energy giants and launch a massive programme of investment in renewable energy and insulation.

Only those measures will take us out of this cycle of economic uncertainty and help solve the cost-of-living crisis.

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Thank you for taking the time to read my latest update, if you have any issues that you would like to raise directly with me then please do email  edmontonconstituency@parliament.uk. I’m always happy to help whenever possible.

Kind regards,

Kate Osamor MP