PPS Resignation Letter

Read below the full text from Kate’s letter to Peter Kyle MP Shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland

Dear Peter,

I am writing to confirm my resignation as Shadow Northern Ireland Private Parliamentary Secretary. As I set out in my call earlier this week, I am pleased that you asked me to take up the PPS position in December 2021.

I am proud of the work we did on the Legacy and Reconciliation Bill ensuring our opposition to such a problematic bill was made clear. It remains a travesty that the Government forced through a bill that not one Northern Irish political party nor Member of Parliament was in favour of – a bill that gives more rights to people who committed crimes than their victims.

Visiting and supporting Unite the Union members at Regina Coelie House was a particular highlight too, and I hope the fight will continue to support homeless women at invaluable facilities such as this in Belfast and further afield.

In Westminster, a lot of my time and work is focussed on my membership of the Woman & Equalities and Education Select Committees and the Backbench Business Committee. In order to be the most effective representative possible for my constituents, I have made the decision to step back from some of these positions in order to concentrate more on local issues.

Constituency work is always my priority, particularly during this period when people across the Jarrow constituency are facing a hardship not seen for generations, with the cost-of-living crisis we currently find ourselves in making daily life a struggle for many people across local communities. This, of course, is as a result of 12 years of Tory government, the Conservatives deliberate inaction and failure to support our communities and their lies on their levelling up agenda. With wages at a record low, unemployment in my constituency higher than the national average, inflation at a 40 year high and 41% of kids in Jarrow living in poverty there is an enormous amount of support needed to give my constituents. People are struggling to pay food and energy bills – no longer faced with a choice over heating or eating – but unable to do either – this poverty is a political choice by this Government and I want to spend as much time as possible fighting this Government and supporting my constituents through this time.

I have embarked on a series of roadshows through the summer and intend on building on these to give my constituents as much support as possible. I have spent a lot of time reflecting on this decision and I wish to thank you for your understanding and respecting my wishes.

I wish the Shadow Northern Ireland team all the best and I look forward to supporting your future work from the backbenches.

Kind regards,

Kate Osborne MP

Member of Parliament for the Jarrow constituency

Tories are allowing energy firms to make £6m profit an hour

Read Kate’s latest column for the Shields Gazette: 

Prices have risen by more than 200%, inflation has risen to a record 40 year high and wages have fallen at sharpest rate on record and now the energy price cap is set to double in January, reaching an eye-watering average of £4,200 per year, putting more than half of households in fuel poverty.

People are struggling to cope with this cost of living crisis, with food prices rising – bread up 16% and pasta up a huge 50% leaving people no longer just choosing between heating and eating, but unable to do either – reliant on foodbanks and worried about putting the heating on heading into the winter months thinking how on earth they are going to financially survive. 

Yet where are the Tory Government? 

People are suffering and the Government are missing in action, with Johnson on his second holiday in as many weeks and two Tory leadership candidates more focussed on tearing strips off each other in public debates focusing on how many tax breaks to give to the rich than offering any real solutions to this crisis.

We can’t continue making working people pay whatever the big energy company’s demand.

It cost £2.2bn just to bail out Bulb Energy. Britain could nationalise the top five energy companies for only £2.8bn.

It isn’t cost that stops the government from nationalising it’s a political choice to continue letting UK energy companies make £6 million profit an hour – whilst people cannot afford to pay their bills.

People on the lowest incomes having to bear the brunt of these whopping price rises, alongside sky-high food and petrol prices, is beyond disgraceful – and isn’t happening anywhere else in Europe.

It doesn’t have to be like this. Things could – and should – be better for working-class people across this country. And that’s why we need everybody out together, campaigning for a better deal.

It’s time to say – enough is enough.

Labour’s plan to save households £1,000 this winter and invest in sustainable British energy to bring bills down in the long-term is a direct response to the national economic emergency that is leaving families fearing for the future and would have an immediate impact – helping people get through the winter whilst providing the foundations for a stronger, more secure economy.

We’ve got incredible foodbanks in the Borough such as Hebburn Helps and Bede’s Helping Hands and more across the wider region.  I can’t speak highly enough of the work they do, day-in-day-out, to combat the profoundly negative impact twelve years of Tory Governments, they will be needed more than ever as this Government continues to fail the people of this country – but it remains a disgrace that in one of the richest countries in the world we are normalising millions of people relying on foodbanks.

It is a disgrace that this Tory Government have forced people into this position in the first place. We simply cannot afford more of the same.

My office roadshows are continuing throughout the summer, and I would urge anyone needing help or advice to come along or to get in touch with me [email protected] 

 






Kate Osborne MP announces summer tour

Jarrow MP Kate Osborne is launching a summer initiative to engage with as many people in the Jarrow constituency as possible over the next couple of months.

Plans include a summer survey as well as visits across the constituency, a roadshow in August, with a drop-in session being hosted in each of the ten wards within the Jarrow constituency.

At a time when many constituents are facing a number of problems from coping with the impact of the pandemic, to the drastic increase in food and energy bill costs, to issues with accessing NHS services and a host of other issues causing people concerns, it is even more important for people to know there is somewhere they can turn for advice and support as well as having their voice heard when Kate raises their concerns in Parliament.

The drop-in sessions will give Jarrow constituents to speak with Kate and her team as well as an opportunity to fill in the Summer Survey and share what their priorities are, both locally and nationally.

Each session will also give residents the chance to pick up some advice leaflets from local charities as well as both Gateshead and South Tyneside Council’s.

Kate Osborne MP said: “Over the recess, I think it is so important as an MP to get out around the constituency as much as I can.

People are under enormous pressure with a cost of living crisis and every day pressures and I am determined to ensure people know I am on their side.

The gap in regional inequality has widened and we see more families pushed into poverty every month – the Tories don’t care if families & towns in the North are struggling – they’re preoccupied with leadership campaigns & empty slogans

I will focus on supporting constituents across South Tyneside and Gateshead throughout the summer.

I’ve also launched my Summer Survey as I want to hear from constituents what their priorities are going forward so I can ensure that I am best representing Jarrow constituents’ priorities when Parliament returns.”

“I hope to see as many constituents as possible over the summer recess so if you can, come along to the drop-in for your ward and have a chat with us!”

Click here to fill in Kate’s Summer Survey!

 

Johnson got the ‘big calls’ wrong and so will the next Tory leader

Kate’s latest column for the Shields Gazette:

Earlier this week in Westminster, shameless Conservative MPs passed a motion of confidence in Boris Johnson’s zombie government – just days after doing everything they could to force him out of office.

Shamelessly, Tory MPs cheered when this doomed Prime Minister said he was proud of what he has done.

The same Tory MPs that brazenly voted to back his Government on Monday certainly didn’t have confidence in him last week when one after another, they resigned.

No one should be proud of his record. He has done nothing for communities across the Jarrow constituency.

Around 38 per cent of children across the Jarrow constituency are trapped in poverty.

So many families are struggling to cope with the ever-rising cost of living and inflation is at a 40-year high.

Equally as damning is the worrying increase in the number of working people who are being forced to turn to a food bank. Locally we are seeing an overall increase of 37 per cent in Food Bank usage over the past 12 months. Hebburn Helps food bank have informed me that over the past year there has been a 29 per cent rise in Food Bank usage from working people alone. These figures highlight the neglect of our community by Boris Johnson and his Government.

Our communities have been neglected over the past 12 years of Tory rule as they have ploughed ahead with their relentless attacks on working people.

Boris Johnson repeatedly churns out the line that he ‘got the big calls right’ yet during his premiership child poverty has increased by over a third in Gateshead and South Tyneside alone.

Parents are skipping meals to feed their children, and families are even selling the family car and cycling to work, just to get through their daily struggles as the cost-of-living crisis hammers people hard.

The Tory leadership candidates will promise the earth but the one thing we do know is that they will do nothing for the North East and communities like ours.

Multiple Government departments have already been thrown into disarray causing chaos for constituents when contacting the Passport Office, Home Office and the DVSA to name but a few, and they are being let down.

The NHS is in crisis, with a severe lack of funding, a crisis that goes back to when the Tories joined forces with the Lib Dems back in 2010.

These are the big calls that Johnson has got wrong time and time again and things won’t change with a new leader.

This week I had no hesitation in voting no confidence in this Government and if the Tory MPs had the same conviction as they had last week, then they would have done the same.

The Tories need to go. Now!

Boris Johnson’s time in Government will be symbolised by sleaze, austerity, lies and relentless attacks on the working-class

Kate’s latest column for the Shields Gazette: 

 

At the time of writing this column, 30 of the Prime Minister’s Government frontbenchers have resigned and by the time you read this article, many more could have handed in their resignations including the Prime Minister himself!

As Boris Johnson continues to head from one disaster to the next, with a host of resignations from his own MPs and support from his own Ministers falling quicker than a set of dominoes, his disastrous time in Government will be symbolised by sleaze, austerity, lies and relentless attacks on the working-class.

We will never forget how Boris Johnson and friends partied in Westminster whilst the rest of the country was making the most difficult of sacrifices imaginable.  What we have had over the last few years is a Government that has used the Covid Pandemic, to maximise profits for their cronies and to undermine workers rights.

This Tory Government is underpinned by hypocrisy and unfairness. 

We knew that Boris Johnson’s time in charge would be centred on one rule for us, one rule for them – though the scale of the lies and incompetence was hard to predict! 

Whilst the Tories continued jeering at each other it is our communities that are suffering from their failures. 

Boris Johnson at PMQs speculated about the reasons people want him to resign – well it’s quite clear why the country, his MPs and even his cabinet all want him to resign – we are all fed up with his lies and incompetence.

We will never forget this Tory Government who have left so many people without a decent quality of living. We will never forget their lack of financial support to our health service which has left many of our local services on life support.  

And we will never forget their attacks on our public services.  

Yet our communities are resilient and we will demand better – last month the Jarrow Rebel festival brought campaigners and communities together and this weekend marks the return of the fabulous Durham Miners’ Gala for the first time in three years.  

The Big Meeting has been sorely missed by our communities across the North East and I can’t wait to join the thousands who will descend upon Durham on Saturday.  

The Gala, a great trade union and community celebration, is always a wonderful spectacle, with  anthems played by the brass bands and the colourful, imposing banners from the mining community, all of whom carry defiant messages of solidarity, have never been as symbolic after the hugely difficult times many of us have endured during the pandemic.  

Standing together with the trade unions from across the country will be those who represent Britain’s Covid heroes.  

Earlier this week, we celebrated the 74th birthday of the NHS.  Over the last couple of years, it has had to work for us like never before. We owe a huge debt of gratitude for our NHS heroes who have put their lives on the line to support the country throughout these testing times.  Today I raised in parliament the issues with North East Ambulance Services, the investigation into cover ups with details being withheld from the coroners in as many as 90 cases and the waiting times for ambulances and A and E – waiting times that can and have had devastating consequences for individuals and staff unable to provide quality care – of course you cannot look at the rise in waiting times in isolation.

This Government instead of investing in our NHS and staff are insisting staff take a real terms pay cut and attacking Staff sick pay – our NHS cannot sustain the current level of attacks from this Government and inevitably it is going to be both staff and patients who will suffer. It is a disgrace that the government are attacking workers that are keeping us going through covid – workers putting themselves at risk every day going to work to protect us – called heroes one minute and vilified the next. 

In Durham this weekend, I’ll be joining the nurses who worked tirelessly on the frontline in the most difficult of circumstances; the care workers who looked after the most vulnerable in our communities; and all of those unsung heroes on the frontline who kept our country going.  

These are the same people who continue to suffer from low levels of pay that leaves them, like so many others, struggling to keep up with the spiralling cost of living. Many other workers have been left with no choice but to turn to a food bank which is the biggest indictment of this Government and its disastrous time in power.  

It’s been a long time coming but I for one can’t wait for the return of the Durham Miners’ Gala which will signal hope, unity, and a host of communities who will stand proud to say to this Conservative Government that enough is enough.  I hope to see some of you there!

 

 

 

Government is playing politics with the rail workers’ dispute

As a lifelong Trade Unionist and supporter of workers fighting for better pay, terms and conditions, I am proud to support the thousands of railway workers across the country who have been taking industrial action this week. 

This out of touch Government has underfunded and mismanaged our public transport network for more than a decade and enough is enough. RMT members taking strike action are of course standing up for their rights – but they are also standing up for commuters – demanding a safe, well-staffed railway where people are put before profit.

These key workers deserve our full support and they are not the only ones, teachers, NHS staff, Local Government workers and many more are all struggling to cope with the cost of living crisis. 

This Government has failed to deal with the cost of living crisis, and of course they are playing politics with this RMT dispute, threatening to legislate against the right to strike. 

We should be tackling the false narrative that pits railway workers against the traveling public, that states workers are overpaid.

Workers have had real terms pay cuts for decades and are now facing a cost of living crisis, food poverty and energy bill rises – all political choices of this Government.

Workers have been left with no choice and no one takes strike action lightly.

Yesterday during Prime Minister’s Questions, I pointed out its not just

rail workers that are on strike, royal mail workers, NHS workers, teachers and even barristers are on the verge of taking industrial action fighting for better pay, terms and conditions. All workers are struggling to cope with the worst cost of living crisis in history.

Yet this Government are planning to boost City bosses’ pay whilst demanding ‘wage restraint’ for everyone else

I asked Boris Johnson when is he is going to stop giving meaningless sound bites and instead support working people many of whom are slipping further and further below the breadline. 

Again, the Prime Minister failed to acknowledge his Government must do more. These are workers who keep our country moving safely 365 days a year. The least they deserve is to be paid properly and feel secure in their jobs.

  Last weekend I attended a march in London organised by the TUC where tens of thousands of working people marched through the streets to tell this rotten Government that they have had enough. 

This is a Government that does not care about the likes of you and me. They are playing politics with this RMT dispute and threatening to legislate against the right to strike.

Their attack on workers’ rights has become more and more hostile and it is appalling that the Government is deliberately pitting railway workers against the travelling public.

With the rise of fire and rehire as we have already seen proposed at many companies across the country such as British Gas, Heathrow Airport and others, we know that this Government is not on the side of the workers. 

This Saturday I will be speaking at the Jarrow Rebel Town Festival, Jarrow has a long proud history of standing up for workers rights and for better living standards for our community and I am proud to continue in that tradition.

 

Vote deals a hammer blow to Johnson’s chances of survival

THIS week in Parliament has been dominated by Conservative infighting and the confidence vote in Boris Johnson with 42% of Tory MPs saying they had no confidence in the Prime Minister – yet whilst this leaves Boris clinging onto his job, ordinary people are suffering from this Government’s failures.

Continue reading

No new support for the many facing soaring living costs

Kate’s latest column for the Shields Gazette:

Following the excitement of the last week’s local elections, Parliament returned on Tuesday for the Queen’s Speech – the Government’s legislative agenda for the next parliamentary term.

Prince Charles, standing in for the Queen who was forced to pull out due to mobility problems,  announced plans for 38 pieces of legislation including a Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill, a Brexit Freedoms Bill, a Schools Bill, an Energy Security Bill, the long-promised Online Safety Bill and a Public Order Bill.

However, despite promises to get Britain “back on track” after the Covid pandemic, the Queen’s Speech contained no new support for households struggling with the cost of living.  

The cost of living crisis is the main, immediate challenge facing this country. There’s no sign of it abating and so many families are struggling financially.

The Bank of England recently issued a prediction that inflation will surpass 10% later this year.

When the UK is already experiencing the worst deterioration in living standards for decades, many will dread to think what a continued surge in prices will mean for them and their families.

A wasted decade of low growth under the Conservatives has left our economy weakened and the Tories have become the party of high taxes and low pay.

We needed a Queen’s Speech that would tackle the cost of living crisis, with an emergency budget including a windfall tax to get money off people’s bills.

We needed a real plan for growth to get our economy firing on all cylinders, with a Climate Investment Pledge and a commitment to buy, make and sell more in Britain.

 

Instead, a failure to tackle the cost of living crisis and low growth in the Queen’s Speech marks a major economic failure by the Conservatives.

The Queen’s Speech could have shown a Government in touch with working people. It could have shown a Government taking action to make sure there are no more reports of millions of people struggling to make ends meet.

Unscrupulous bosses will cheer the demise of the promised Employment Bill, but its absence will dismay workers in perilous jobs. For many, fire and rehire on less pay has become a grim reality. No new cash for a much-needed inflating-busting pay rise means the NHS and other essential services will go on losing experienced staff. Waiting lists for treatment will also get longer and services will worsen for everyone.

Earlier this week I tabled an amendment to the Queen’s Speech calling for the Government to do more to solve the housing crisis, including bringing forward a Bill that will ensure a new generation of good quality social homes, improve private renting conditions and bolster regulation in the social rented sector.

I also tabled an amendment on the Government’s watered-down ban on conversion therapy and called on the inclusion of transgender people who it currently doesn’t include.

We needed legislation to boost workers’ rights and proper plans for social care and ‘levelling-up’.

Instead, we have seen tax rise after tax rise on working people.

What is even worse is that families are paying higher energy bills now because of this Government’s failure to properly regulate the energy market over the past decade, develop renewables and nuclear power, and deliver energy efficiency programmes which could have cut bills. 

The Government could have introduced much greater support for working families and pensioners facing rising bills, funded by a windfall tax on oil and gas companies making near-record profits during this crisis. But they have not.

This is a government that is completely out of touch. These planned laws will make little difference to the millions who are facing soaring living costs.

It is wholly unacceptable that we have a Government who haven’t grasped the seriousness of this crisis. Families are being forced into debt and struggling to make ends meet with many working people left with no choice but to turn to a food bank.

Here we have a Government that has run out of ideas, led by a Prime Minister entirely out of touch. It doesn’t have to be this way. It won’t always be this way. A Labour Government would tackle the cost-of-living crisis head-on and get Britain growing again after 12 years of failure.

Take inspiration from past generations of sacrifice and struggle on #MayDay2022

Kate’s latest column for Labour Outlook: 

May Day alongside Workers Memorial Day on the 28th April is a time where collectively the Working Class can gather and reflect on generations of sacrifice and struggle. Whilst this time gives an opportunity to deepen into a nostalgic outlook, we also take time to reflect on battles that have been fought in the past.

My message to the people of Jarrow for May Day 2022, is that we use this occasion to celebrate our class, as we remember that Jarrow’s history is central to our identity, an identity where we can say to generations gone, we continue to carry the banners as we build for that better tomorrow.

When I reflect on the Industrial history of my constituency I think of Jarrow between the wars. A town, where employment relied on the interests of profit through the shipbuilding firm Palmers. A time where a National Government offset the problems of unemployment onto the backs of the Working Class by introducing the Means Test, and other draconian cuts to the Welfare State. Ninety years ago, in Jarrow at the peak of the Great Depression (1932), unemployment in the town stood at ‘80%’.

In her ground breaking work, ‘The Town that was Murdered’, Ellen Wilkinson described the subsequent poverty-stricken condition of Jarrow as, “not an accident, a temporary difficulty or a personal fault. But the permanent state in which the citizens of any capitalist country have to live”.

This May Day, rather than looking back at this seismic event in the footnotes of working-class history, it is only right to think about the relevance of the Jarrow Marchers fight today.

The Chancellor Rishi Sunak has said it would be, ‘silly to boost support on energy bills’. The lack of political action and economic help from this Government to help people in alleviating the serious Cost of Living Crisis, is a politically driven choice made by this Government.

Whilst today’s statistics don’t match up face value, with the stark figures of the 1930s, we have to remember that Jarrow of 2022 is faced with similar battles where key services are being stripped from our local authorities, where there is a growth in un-unionised insecure work and where there is a significant rise in the last 12 years in the opening of food banks.

Reflecting on what Jarrow faces today, and what the people in the constituency faced in the 1930s, it is vital to echo these words from Tony Benn, “Can you draw inspiration and courage from the people in the past who fought the battle it was their job to fight”.

Take courage and inspiration that it was the generation of the Jarrow Marchers, who took their shared experience of the ‘Hungry Thirties’, to make sure their lasting legacy after the Second World War was to say, never again.

Never again should the Working Class need to march for the lack of work, never again should the Working Class undergo the worry for lack of money, never again should the people suffer as a result of changing economic factors beyond their control.

It was these Working Class demands which became the bedrock of policy in Labour’s 1945 Government, which established the NHS, organised secure employment through the public ownership of industry and, with Ellen Wilkinson, as Secretary of State for Education, introduced compulsory secondary school education.

Even after defeat in the 2019 General Election, shared and collective experience is our most powerful tool, faced with the aftermath of the Pandemic, this May Day it is only right to think of the struggles faced by the people of Jarrow in the past, and what they managed to build from it.

With these lessons in mind, it is our duty through the Labour and Trade Union Movement to carry on the fight.