Breaking Down Barriers to Opportunity

Angela Rayner Excerpts

Wednesday 8th November 2023 Commons Chamber

[Angela Rayner (Ashton-under-Lyne) (Lab)]

Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. Can I just say well done to the Education Secretary for the level of creativity and imagination in her opening remarks?

In opening this debate on behalf of the Opposition, Iusb want to offer a note of optimism after the miserable vision for this country’s future presented by the Government. Britain is crying out for lasting change that will see the ambition of our young people harnessed, the drive of our businesses rewarded, and the aspiration that exists around every kitchen table fully realised.

We promise our children and grandchildren that if they work hard, they will be able to get on, no matter what their background. We tell them that with enough graft, everyone has the opportunity to build a good life around what they do best and love most. But opportunity is built on security, so that people can live without fear that they might be evicted or lose their job for no good reason at all. It is built on the foundation of a decent wage and a secure home.

The Prime Minister and his party have taken a sledgehammer to those foundations on which a good life can be built. People can no longer be sure that by working hard they will get on, or that where they come from will not hold them back. The only certainty is that this Government will sit on their hands while working people graft and Ministers promise more of the same.

Last year, it was the then Home Secretary, the right hon. Member for Witham (Priti Patel), who led the second day of debate on the Queen’s Speech for the Government. This year, she was dancing away through her party’s conference with Nigel Farage—dancing the right away, we might say—but it is the current Home Secretary who is dancing to his tune. This week, she told us her answer to homelessness: “Take away their tents.” And her answer to crime? To waste police time arresting charity volunteers for giving the tents out. Then there is the Prime Minister, who is so weak that he does not dare put the proposals to us but does not dare to distance himself from them either. He chooses delay, while his Cabinet argues behind closed doors. We know who is leading this dance and who is following.

That is the story of this King’s Speech through and through: party before country. We needed a King’s Speech that would draw a line under 13 years of Tory decline, but instead we have a party so devoid of leadership that the only fight left in them is to fight among themselves. But while Cabinet Ministers argue over headlines, schools across our country are literally crumbling, with children cowering under steel props to stop the roof falling in. Is there any clearer example of a Government failing in their basic duties than the constant drip, drip of schools being added to the reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete list? At the current rate, over 2 million children are at risk of regularly missing school by 2025. That is one in four of all children currently at primary and secondary school. A lost generation of children in England are facing a tidal wave of mental ill health, unable to get treatment through the NHS.

Yesterday, we waited for a plan for our children and young people that would see aspiration and ambition for everyone, a plan to prevent a child’s background from being a barrier to their getting on, a plan to deliver a broad, inclusive and innovative curriculum, a plan to get to grips with the epidemic of persistent absence and mend the broken relationship between schools, families and Government, and a plan to enable every child to achieve and thrive. Yet this sorry excuse for a Government offer no plan for crumbling buildings, no plan to broaden the narrow, outdated curriculum, no plan for the children missing from classrooms since the pandemic, and no plan for the future.

[Munira Wilson]

One of the things that we did not hear about from the Education Secretary is the attainment gap between the wealthiest pupils and the most disadvantaged, which is growing, as evidenced by the Education Policy Institute and many other experts. We have seen that small-group and one-to-one tutoring can be a really effective intervention for disadvantaged children, yet the national tutoring programme is not due to continue beyond this year. Will the right hon. Lady join me in calling on the Education Secretary to extend the national tutoring programme and fully fund it so that schools can help the most disadvantaged pupils?

[Angela Rayner]

I will do better than that: I call on the Education Secretary and the Prime Minister to call a general election and let Labour take over. We will make sure that every child in this country has an opportunity. All too often, the prospects of children in Britain are limited by the circumstances of their birth, not opened up by their opportunities in life. Led by our formidable shadow Education Secretary, my hon. Friend the Member for Houghton and Sunderland South (Bridget Phillipson), Labour has a serious plan to boost child development and young people’s school outcomes, as well as to expand training routes so that more people than ever are on pathways with good prospects by 2035.

This starts at school. I do not think the Secretary of State understands that. I remember all too well feeling hungry all day at school and being unable to focus. I am proud to say that Labour will introduce breakfast clubs in every primary school. As my hon. Friend the Member for Houghton and Sunderland South announced, Labour will be on the side of children and families. We will boost standards across schools by reinstating the requirement for qualified teacher status, ensuring that teaching is a respected and valued profession. We will reset relationships with families, schools, teachers and school staff. And Labour will end the tax breaks for private schools to fund that investment in excellent state education for everyone.

The fact is that young people are caught in a vicious Tory doom loop, denied the opportunities their parents had, left behind by their Government from school to employment, and unable to rely on the security of a decent home and a secure job.

What the Tory party has successfully built is a boulevard of broken dreams. The Conservatives have broken their promises to renters, to leaseholders, to house builders, and to all those who dream of owning their own home. Like a bad Santa at Christmas, they are doling out broken promises in every direction. There is a broken promise to renters, with the ban on no-fault evictions kicked into the long grass in an indefinite delay and with the Government blaming a court system that they themselves have broken, appeasing the vested interests on their own Benches rather than doing the right thing for the country. There is a broken promise to leaseholders —not the integrated package of recommendations for enfranchisement, commonhold and right to manage proposed by the Law Commission, but more cherry-picking and space-saving from the Secretary of State. There is a broken promise to house builders: the Government said that they would bring back amended proposals to reform nutrient neutrality rules after their flawed first attempt was rightly rejected by those in the other place, including many Conservative Lords. We stood, and we stand, ready to agree on reform to build the homes that we need while protecting the rivers from pollution, but yesterday we heard not a word. The Government were never serious; they were just playing political games.

And what about first-time buyers? There are no targets, no ideas and no ambition. The Government were too weak to take on the blockers in their own party and deliver the change that our country needs. The dream of a safe, secure and affordable home is moving ever further out of reach. Instead of homes, all that the Government have built is a house of cards. That is the difference between us. We have a recovery plan for secure homes: a plan to build 1.5 million homes across the country, with a reformed planning regime that will unlock our potential. This is no time to wait. Let us get Britain building again with a generation of new towns, unlocking growth across Britain with the biggest boost to affordable housing in a generation. The Government cannot fix homelessness without increasing the supply of housing, and they cannot boost real growth unless workers have the homes they need. We will not duck the difficult issues as the Tories have. We would abolish no-fault evictions and fix the broken leasehold system once and for all. Labour is the only party that is serious about boosting the supply of new homes to buy or to rent and unlocking the dream of a safe, secure and affordable home for all.

[Mrs Flick Drummond (Meon Valley) (Con)]

The Labour party talks about 1.5 million new houses; we talk about 300,000 new houses over the next five years. Can you tell me exactly what the difference is?

[Angela Rayner]

I think the hon. Lady needs to ask herself whether her Government have ever delivered on any of their housing targets. They have not done so. They can pick a number out of the sky, but they have not delivered on it. They have not taken on the blockers in their own party, which is why we are in this decline and do not have the houses that we want in our country. But Labour will deliver those houses, will take on the blockers, and will make sure that people do have a home for life.

I had a sense of déjà vu when I listened to yesterday’s speech, because some of it sounded rather familiar. Let us take the pledge to

“increase housing supply and home ownership by reforming the planning system”.

That was not said yesterday; it was said back in 2014, nearly a decade ago—and home ownership rates are lower now than they were when the Tories came to power. Or let us take this line, from 2013:

“My ministers will continue to prioritise measures that reduce the deficit—ensuring interest rates are kept low for homeowners and businesses.”

Well, that went well! Since the Government’s disastrous mini-Budget, when they crashed the economy, interest rates have gone through the roof, and mortgage holders have been £580 a month worse off in the last year alone. Or let us take this one:

“My Government will help more people…enhancing the rights of those who rent.”

That was back in 2021, and almost identical words have featured in every single Gracious Speech in the current Parliament. However, the pledge was first made in April 2019, by the then Prime Minister, the right hon. Member for Maidenhead (Mrs May). It is now five sessions, four and a half years and four Tory Prime Ministers later. They do not really like anything involving high speed, do they? Perhaps the Under-Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, the hon. Member for Redcar (Jacob Young), will at least be able to say later whether he will commit to scrapping section 21 by next April, five years after they pledged to do so. If they do not have support from their own Benches, I can offer ours, and if they do not achieve that in their last King’s speech, we will do it in our first.

This Government have failed young people not only from school to housing, but into employment too. Yesterday’s announcements were utterly out of touch when it came to the basic foundation of decent work. Time and again—in fact, 20 times—Ministers promised an employment Bill that would not only protect workers but strengthen our broken labour market, boosting productivity, retention and growth. They promised that enhanced rights and protections were just around the corner, but they never came. The promise to introduce a single enforcement body, a measure that is backed by businesses and workers alike? Gone. The promise to make it easier for fathers to take paternity leave? Disappeared. The promise to end the cruel practice of fire and rehire? Up in smoke. Instead, the Government have done nothing but fail workers, the public and businesses by doubling down on their failed approach to Britain’s broken labour market. leading to the worst strikes in decades.

Now the Government are getting their excuses in early for Christmas, offering another sticking plaster to distract from the Conservatives’ track record of failure. We all want minimum standards of service and staffing, but it is Tory Ministers who are constantly failing to provide them. I know: I am an Avanti West Coast user. Only Labour can offer the change that Britain needs, with industrial relations fit for a modern economy where issues can be resolved before they escalate. We will bring in a new partnership of co-operation between trade unions, employers and Government, which will mean that issues are resolved before the need for strikes. We will learn from other high-growth economies that benefit from more co-operation and less disruption by updating trade union legislation so that it is fit for a modern economy.

Labour’s new deal is our plan to make work pay and help working people to thrive, tackling insecure work and ensuring good jobs and higher living standards in every part of the country. The next Labour Government will present an employment rights Bill to Parliament within 100 days of taking office. We will offer a new deal for working people, with zero-hours contracts banned; fire and rehire gone; basic rights from day one; and a genuine minimum wage taking into account the real cost of living that every adult will benefit from. We will go further and faster in closing the gender pay gap, making work more family-friendly and tackling sexual harassment.

Our plans will benefit not just working people but be good for businesses and the economy. They will help to keep more people in work, improve productivity and put more money in working people’s pockets to spend—the absolute route to real growth. That will also benefit businesses by ending the race to the bottom by ensuring that good employers are not undercut by those who use exploitative employment practices. By levelling up workers’ rights, Labour will be starting a race to the top, with a future of work that provides opportunity, affords dignity and fuels growth in every part of the country— [Interruption.] The public know you laugh at them, they see it all the time. Sorry, Madam Deputy Speaker, but I think Government Front Benchers need to listen. It would be good for them to understand what it is like for working people in this country after they crashed the economy, sent inflation sky high and put record numbers of tax burdens on working people. I really do think they need to listen.

The British people deserve a Government who match their aspirations; a country where families have more money in their pockets, decent pay and good jobs; a country where their children have the opportunity they deserve to thrive, where young people are not held back by their background; and a Britain where no one is written off and no one is left behind. [Interruption.] The Secretary of State chunters. Call a general election and let’s test.

[Several hon. Members rose—]