The Economy and Living Standards

Jim Cunningham Excerpts

Thursday 12th June 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr Jim Cunningham (Coventry South) (Lab)]

Picking up on the last point that the hon. Member for Redcar (Ian Swales) made about the 10p rate, let me add that a Labour Government introduced that in the first place. We can have lots of debates about that after the event, but obviously I do not have a lot of time to go through the issues I would want to go through.

I welcome the fall in unemployment—it would be a bit churlish of me not to do so. Obviously, I also welcome the Modern Slavery Bill, because in a modern day and age human trafficking is an abomination to civilised society. Of course I also welcome any help that small businesses get, although I do not think that what is being done is enough. Having said all that, the Queen’s Speech falls down because nothing is being done to construct social housing. By contrast, if Labour wins the next general election, we will probably build about 200,000 houses a year, because that is what is needed. Government Members have been debating what we did and did not do when we were in office, but let us not forget that we had to clear up an 18-year mess left by the Tories—they tend to forget that. I can remember the falling down hospitals, the closure of schools and so on, so we do not need any lessons from those guys over there on the Government Benches. Of course in 13 years we could not do everything.

One thing we should draw to the House’s attention is that purchasing power, regardless of what job someone is in, has fallen by between 5% and 6%. Schoolteachers and low-paid people in Coventry have seen a gradual erosion of the purchasing power of their wages. When people talk about the European Union and Europe, it is well worth mentioning—it has been mentioned before—that a Labour Government gave the British people a referendum on Europe for the first time. The Heath Government signed up to Europe but the Labour Government of the time went ahead and gave that referendum. Also on Europe people must remember that we had the five tests.

Obviously, I cannot speak about other issues for as long as I would wish, but I want to mention legislative changes on the regulation of taxis, which are certainly creating a lot of issues in Coventry, and up and down the country, with demonstrations yesterday. The other issue I want to raise is the situation at Coventry City football club. We were promised a Bill last year that would regulate the Football League, but that has continually stalled. A private Member’s Bill will be reintroduced to do something about that, but people in Coventry want to know why they have to spend £70 every time they want to see their football team because of the shenanigans going on between the football club and all the other parties involved. Nothing has been done to resolve that problem. May I suggest that the relevant Select Committee tries to resolve it by taking evidence? I am sorry I cannot go on any longer, as I would love to have raised a load of issues.