Change doesn’t happen overnight, yet slowly and surely, this government is delivering after 14 years of Tory austerity
This week marks another week where the Labour government is delivering profound changes to improve the lives of families up and down the country, achievements which we can’t rely on the right-wing press to highlight.
Change doesn’t happen overnight, yet slowly and surely, this government is delivering after 14 years of Tory austerity which hollowed out public services and resulted in higher levels of poverty and inequality.
So, what are some of the Labour government’s achievements this week?
Lifting 450,000 children out of poverty
The scrapping of the cruel two-child benefit limit took place this week and will lift 450,000 children out of poverty. The Child Poverty Action Group identified it as the single biggest driver of child poverty in the country and was the result of political choices made by the last Tory government.
As a result, this Labour government is achieving the biggest reduction in child poverty over a Parliament since records began.
A single policy change that will mean children will no longer go hungry and live in poverty, improving outcomes for almost half a million children up and down the country.
According to the Child Poverty Action Group, every day it remained in place, 109 more children were pulled into poverty by the policy.
Delivering workers’ rights
Labour’s Employment Rights Act came into force on April 6, delivering more rights and security for workers.
As a result, millions of workers across the UK will benefit from paternity leave and unpaid parental leave accessible from day one, stronger Statutory Sick Pay rights, a strengthened duty on employers to prevent sexual harassment, a simplified trade union recognition process and new rights to unpaid bereavement leave.
This amounts to the biggest upgrade to workers’ rights in a generation, an upgrade which the Tories opposed.
Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward
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