London,October 2019-(Amanjit Singh Khaira)-
Faisal Rashid, MP for Warrington South, attacked the Government’s record on food poverty, wage stagnation and NHS underfunding in his contribution to the Queen’s Speech debates on Thursday 25th October.
Faisal noted the recent expansion of a food bank in Warrington as a symptom of the Government’s incompetency and disregard for those struggling to get by. Warrington Foodbank recently opened its new unit to cope with the alarming levels of demand. According to analysis from the Institute for Fiscal Studies, annual wages were £760 lower last year than they were a decade ago. Families are increasingly borrow to get by, with an estimated 8.3 million people unable to keep up with debts or bills.
Faisal Rashid, MP for Warrington South, said:
“Hunger is becoming normal in modern Britain – a scathing indictment of our broken economy. In Warrington our local foodbank has just had to open a new distribution centre to cope with the rising levels of demand. Warrington’s foodbank was set up in 2012, just two years after the Tories came to power with the help of the Liberal Democrats.
“Now this food bank distributes around 46,000 meals annually, and 35% of those meals go to children. What an utter disgrace that it will now be forced to expand to meet rising demand in our town.
“People in our country today work the longest average full-time hours in Europe apart from Greece and Austria. But has this translated into a rise in wealth and living standards for the average worker? Absolutely not. The average employee today works more, earns less, and even produces less than a decade ago.
“Families are forced to borrow to cover basic expenses; an estimated 8.3 million people cannot keep up with debts or bills. The housing market is in crisis, with young people set to be poorer than their parents.
“These are the symptoms of a deeply broken economy that requires radical overhaul. Despite the Tories’ bogus claims about getting the deficit down, Government debt is now 10% higher as a proportion of GDP than it was in 2010.
“They have presided over a lost decade of economic stagnation – with ordinary workers paying the price.
“In Government, Labour would rewrite the rules of the UK economy, fundamentally redistributing wealth and power and putting it in the hands of ordinary working people. We wouldn’t see foodbanks expanding under Labour. We would see them shut down for good.”
