Hertford and Stortford Labour Party have called on Julie Marson MP to stand up for vulnerable members of the community and vote in favour of scrapping the Government’s planned cut to universal credit in Parliament on Monday.
Under Government plans, the basic allowance will be cut by £20 a week in April, equating to £1000 a year. Labour has tabled an Opposition Day motion on Monday 18th January calling on the Government to scrap the proposed reduction.
“As the pandemic drags on, businesses are under strain and people in our communities are losing work,” Josh Dean, Chair of Hertford and Stortford Labour Party, said. “This cut to Universal Credit would be a hammer blow to those in our community who are struggling to make ends meet. It would be frankly immoral to force the poorest households in Britain to shoulder the economic burden for the Coronavirus crisis and that’s why I’ve written to Julie Marson calling on her to vote to scrap the cut.”
A final decision on Universal Credit may not be made until the Budget in March, but the Prime Minister has told MPs that he’d rather see a focus on jobs than on welfare - despite the fact that 39% of the 5.7 million people on Universal Credit in October were already in work. This is a clear indicator of worsening in-work poverty in Britain.
Josh added, “This is not the time for Julie Marson to rigidly follow the Tory whip. This is about the very real lives of people who are struggling in our community - she needs to go to Parliament and stand up for them. They have made enormous sacrifices in the fight against the Coronavirus and their MP cannot repay them by voting to put them in financial jeopardy.”
Labour has also been granted a second opposition day debate on Monday and will be using the second to force a vote on the provision of Free School Meals over the February half-term. This follows the publication of guidance from the Department for Education which revealed that headteachers in England have been told not to supply vouchers and food parcels to disadvantaged children over the half-term holiday.
