New research shows that across the country, more than 1,300 Children’s centres, where local families with young children can go to enjoy facilities and receive parenting support, have closed under the Conservatives between 2010 and 2021.
In Liverpool, the Labour council have protected Children’s Centres, none have closed in the city. Recently, Liverpool Labour Group Leader Councillor Liam Robinson visited Picton Children’s Centre. The centre provides a range of support to families in the local area and this year alone has had over 7000 users.
Labour is increasing its focus on developing an ambitious childcare offer to support families from the end of parental leave through to the end of primary school, after the party identified it as a major cause of concern to families in target seats during the cost-of-living crisis.
Labour has unveiled plans to offer breakfast clubs for every primary school child in England at its party conference earlier this year before announcing its intention to remove barriers to councils opening more maintained nurseries, as a first step on the road to delivering this ambition.
Liverpool Labour Group Leader, Liam Robinson said,
“Twelve years of Tory failure has hammered Liverpool, we’ve faced some of the worst cuts. I’m really proud that despite over 60% cuts to Liverpool’s budget, Labour have protected all of our Children’s Centres, right across the city. The facilities and support that Children’s centres provide to children and families is vital.
“With taxes hitting their highest levels in a lifetime, people in our city have had enough of paying more for less. But Labour has a plan to support families with a modern childcare system from parental leave to the end of primary school.”
Labour’s Shadow Education Secretary, Bridget Phillipson MP, said:
“This is yet more evidence that the Conservatives have abandoned families.
“Children’s centres are a lifeline for parents across the country but more and more will inevitably face closure because the Conservatives crashed the economy.”
“These reports expose shocking misjudgements by the Chancellor during the outbreak.
“Labour has been warning for months that his refusal to follow the science is a key reason why our people and our economy have been hit so much harder than many others.
“When he comes to Parliament today, he must explain his decisions over the last year so MPs can hold him to account.”
]]>Cuts to corporation tax by successive Conservative governments have cost the Exchequer £95 billion over the last few years – money that could have been spent on our NHS, schools and keeping police on our streets.
For more than a decade, the Conservatives argued, as the Prime Minister did in 2019, that “every time corporation tax has been cut in this country it has produced more revenue”. Since 2010, the headline rate of corporation tax has been cut from 28 per cent to 19 per cent.
But this week, the Chancellor Rishi Sunak confessed that “we haven’t seen a step change in the level of capital investment that businesses are doing as a result of those corporation tax cut decreases.”
He also admitted the cuts did not directly raise revenue, saying that any rise in corporation tax receipts that concurrent with falling rates was due to a cyclical uptick in business profits.
In 2017, the Conservatives’ own twitter account claimed tax cuts meant “more money for public services” whilst as far back as 2015, the Conservatives were also arguing that any rise to corporation tax would reduce growth and cost “10,000 jobs.” Sunak’s move this week has completely discredited that argument and the ideology that underpins it.
Labour has long argued for increases in corporation tax to bring the UK back in line with comparable economies. The OBR document published alongside this week’s Budget confirmed that increasing corporation tax will raise £17.2 billion in 2025/26 – more than the entire police budget.
Anneliese Dodds, Labour’s Shadow Chancellor, said:
“Labour has argued for over a decade that cuts to corporation tax don’t boost investment or raise extra revenue – they just cost the Treasury billions that could have been put to better use.
“We welcome the Chancellor’s conversion to our point of view, but we can never get back the £95 billion lost to the Treasury over the last few years from this economically illiterate tax cut.
“That money could have been used to strengthen our economy going into this crisis. Instead the Conservatives slashed salaries for key workers, ran down our schools and hospitals, and cut 21,000 police officers from our streets.
“Never again should any Conservative government be allowed to use such a discredited economic argument to weaken the foundations of our country.”
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