Alison McGovern MP: speeches

Speeches

• 1 Sept 2025 · NEETs: Croydon East · Hansard source

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  In Croydon East, young people aged 18 to 21 will be helped by the youth guarantee trailblazer being delivered by the Greater London Authority. It will strengthen early identification and outreach to engage young Londoners who are not, or risk not being, in employment, education or training, by linking them to enhanced support, employment and education opportunities and the essential services that they need. I am glad that the DWP will continue to support communities in Croydon East by hosting an information stall at my hon. Friend’s upcoming advice fair in New Addington.

• 1 Sept 2025 · NEETs: Croydon East · Hansard source

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  I will pass on my hon. Friend’s comments to my colleagues in Croydon, who are keen to work with her and the other MPs there. In the summer, the Secretary of State announced further funding of £45 million for our eight youth guarantee trailblazers. That will ensure that in London, as in the rest of the country, our young people get the choices and chances that they deserve.

• 1 Sept 2025 · Universal Credit: 16 to 24-year-olds · Hansard source

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  I must remind Conservative Members again that it was their party that introduced universal credit, removing the distinction between out-of-work benefits and in-work benefits. For three quarters of young people who are out of work and on universal credit, our guarantee for young people will make sure that they get a second chance in life, after they were utterly failed during the pandemic by the Conservative party.

• 1 Sept 2025 · Universal Credit: 16 to 24-year-olds · Hansard source

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  The latest provisional statistics, taken from Stat-Xplore, show that in July 2025, there were 768,000 people aged 16 to 24 on universal credit. About a quarter of those young people—around 180,000—are on universal credit and in work.

• 15 Jul 2025 · Welfare Spending · Hansard source

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  Well, there we have it—as ever, all politics and no economics. The Conservatives come to this House to talk not about the people of this country, but about themselves. In March, we found out the truth of the Tory record on child poverty, which is highly relevant to their motion today. From 2010 to 2024, the number of poor children skyrocketed by nearly 1 million. After 14 years in office, the Conservatives left us with 4.5 million of our children growing up without the ability to make ends meet. That is what Tory Governments do, just as they did from 1979 to 1997, when child poverty more than doubled, leaving 4.2 million children in relative poverty. The Conservatives can come to this House to defend the failures of the last Government as many times as they like, as their motion does today. Every single time, we will remind them of their record.

• 15 Jul 2025 · Welfare Spending · Hansard source

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  Let me make a little progress, if I may. The official Opposition’s motion speaks of a “benefits culture”. I simply ask them this: who made that culture happen? Who was in charge for the past decade and a half? Either the last Tory Government were powerless to stop that culture being created, or they were responsible for it—which is it? Until they can see the consequences of their own time in office and accept the damage that they did, which they clearly cannot, no one will hear a single word that they say. There are, however, people in this country who deserve a hearing: those who have experienced childhood under the last Tory Government. As the hon. Member for Angus and Perthshire Glens (Dave Doogan) mentioned, we heard last week from the Children’s Commissioner —who, I point out, was appointed under the Conservatives—on her work capturing the opinions of children who have grown up in poverty because of the policies espoused by Conservative Members.

• 15 Jul 2025 · Welfare Spending · Hansard source

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  I did say that I would give way to the hon. Gentleman, so let me do so before I finish my speech.

• 15 Jul 2025 · Welfare Spending · Hansard source

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  I thank the right hon. Gentleman for that lengthy intervention. I deeply regret that he does not feel the need to look his own record in the face and, more than anything, that he has nothing to say to the 4.5 million children in this country without the means to make ends meet. Emergency food parcels distributed by Trussell Trust food banks have increased by 164% over the past 10 years, and 1.1 million children are living in households that have gone to a food bank over the past 12 months. In this country we now have more food banks than police stations. Are the Conservatives proud of that record? I hope not. Nobody in this country should be begging—no child should face that indignity. The consequences are serious. Over 80% of parents say they struggle to get basic support, such as a GP appointment, or to see a health visitor. Schools are in an attendance crisis, with one in five kids now missing a day a fortnight or more, and it is worse for poor kids. That is the Conservatives’ record. These failures for our children will echo down the years and will turn up in our nation’s life expectancy, the benefits bill they say they care about and, worst of all, in the sense of hopelessness that far too many people in this country now have. Do the Conservative Opposition have a response on their record? As we have heard, no, they do not. Have they apologised to families in the UK? As we have heard, no, they have not. Have they reflected on their record? As we have heard, no, they have not. They bring a motion to this House to do none of the above, but to agree with the Tory party policy from 10 years ago. They are the same Conservative party that created the mess we are in now, and they have no regrets. Their motion talks of a benefits trap, and the hon. Member for Faversham and Mid Kent (Helen Whately) just repeated that. They will be awfully cross when they find out who spent £3 billion on the universal credit system that they now say traps people in poverty. They promised that universal credit would get people into work; instead, it pushed people into incapacity benefits.

• 15 Jul 2025 · Welfare Spending · Hansard source

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  I will give way if the hon. Gentleman apologises to the 4.5 million children in this country growing up in poverty.

• 15 Jul 2025 · Welfare Spending · Hansard source

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  I will continue for just a moment. All the young people who spoke to the commissioner could not have been clearer about the challenge of learning in overcrowded bedrooms. They were clear and direct about the shame of not always being able to keep clean because of a lack of hot water. I am deeply proud that we have committed funding for social housing to get children out of temporary accommodation, and expanded the warm home discount for all those on universal credit who are eligible. To ensure that the next generation of families experience a friendly face and have a place to play, we have expanded Best Start family hubs to every local authority. As I said earlier, those are just some of the changes being brought about thanks to the child poverty taskforce chaired by my right hon. Friends the Secretaries of State for Work and Pensions and for Education.

• 15 Jul 2025 · Welfare Spending · Hansard source

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  I will ask the Minister with responsibility for family hubs to write directly to the hon. Gentleman and work with him on that suggestion. From the word go on taking office, the Prime Minister wasted no time in setting up the taskforce of Ministers to analyse the situation for our children in poverty.

• 15 Jul 2025 · Welfare Spending · Hansard source

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  As my hon. Friend rightly points out, in the speech by the shadow Minister, the hon. Member for Faversham and Mid Kent (Helen Whately), we heard yet again from a Tory party that wants only to ignore the facts in favour of dividing people in this country, as it did for the many years it was in government. That is not what people want. People want this country to move forward together.

• 15 Jul 2025 · Welfare Spending · Hansard source

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  The hon. Gentleman is not the only person who worries about it, and I will receive his intervention as a submission to the child poverty taskforce. The child poverty taskforce is looking at all the levers we can pull—across income, costs, debt and local support—to prevent poverty, including social security reform. Our universal credit review is considering ways that the system can improve in order to stabilise family finances and provide roots into good work. On the two-child limit specifically, the consequences of the Conservative choices made over the past decade and a half are clear for all to see. We have rightly said many times that we will not commit to any policy without knowing how we will pay for it. Taxpayers in this country—who include many parents, grandparents and those who care deeply about the fortunes of the next generation—have the right to know that they have a Government who will help grow our country and our economy. Poverty creates stony ground for that growth. It robs people of the dignity of being able to look after themselves and the choices about how to live their own lives. It robs children of what should be a worry-free time and makes them less able to take risks and try new things as they grow up. This makes bad beginnings for a country that needs its next generation to be innovators, to be inventors and to build our future. I say this as one of three in a family with hard-working parents where money was tight. We knew every day in those years when I was growing up that the Tory Government at the helm did not give a stuff about people like us—we knew that every single day. Families in this country who are struggling should know that this Labour Government think about them every day. We have taken action to improve life for our kids, and we will keep fighting for that every single day.

• 15 Jul 2025 · Welfare Spending · Hansard source

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  I have given way a lot, Madam Deputy Speaker, and I am worried that you will be quite cross with me if I keep giving way, so I will make progress.

• 15 Jul 2025 · Welfare Spending · Hansard source

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  I do not believe for a moment that it is just people in the Labour party who care about poverty in this country. Former Conservative Members of this House who were discharged from their duties by previous Prime Ministers, and many other Members of different parties over many years, have cared about poverty. We should deal with facts in this place, and I am merely repeating, for the benefit of the House, the Conservative Government’s record on poverty. I will cover the details of the child poverty taskforce in my speech. If the hon. Gentleman wishes at any point to make representations to the taskforce of Ministers dealing with child poverty in this country, I will happily receive them.

• 15 Jul 2025 · Welfare Spending · Hansard source

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  I will come to the two-child limit in a moment, but let me correct the right hon. Gentleman: the issue then was Members voting to amend the King’s Speech. From the word go on taking office, the Prime Minister wasted no time in setting up the taskforce of Ministers to analyse the situation for our children in poverty and to identify the most cost-effective ways of helping them to experience better childhoods. Our child poverty strategy will be published later this year, but, as I have said, we have already taken steps that we believe will help to mitigate the worst effects of 14 Tory years. Just yesterday, the Chancellor announced the better futures fund, the world’s largest social outcomes fund, which will be backed by £500 million of Government funding over 10 years to support vulnerable children, young people and their families.

• 15 Jul 2025 · Welfare Spending · Hansard source

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  I will mention a few contributions by the Children’s Commissioner for England, and then I will give way further. We heard from the commissioner that children think that free breakfast clubs and school meals are important. That is why we have begun the roll-out of free breakfast clubs in all primary schools and last month announced the expansion of free school meals to all on universal credit, lifting 100,000 children out of poverty by the end of this Parliament. Young people told the commissioner about how they absorb their parents’ money worries. One 16-year-old girl said: “I worry about money quite a lot. I see myself as quite approachable to my mum so my mum will tell me absolutely everything.” Children need to grow up without that stress, so we have introduced the fair repayment rate for universal credit households, so that a debt to the Government does not keep families poor, which will help 700,000 households with children.

• 15 Jul 2025 · Welfare Spending · Hansard source

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  I thank the right hon. Gentleman for his intervention and for reminding me of two of my predecessors. I cannot claim to have known the former, but I did know Frank Field very well. Frank and I talked many times, particularly with regard to Birkenhead, about his belief in the value of work. He wanted to see our shipyard thrive and young people in Birkenhead grow up with the pride of employment. I like to think that when the Prime Minister came to Cammell Laird shipyard recently to talk about the value of good work in Birkenhead, Frank would have felt very proud.