Chuka Umunna MP

Chuka has become one of the first Child Poverty Champions – pledging to work towards ending child poverty by 2020.

Shan Nicholas, Chief Executive of Child Poverty Action Group, said that Chuka “stands out as one of the first to have signed a personal pledge committing to action. “We are delighted that Chuka Umunna MP is so strongly committed to ending child poverty”, he added.

Chuka has also pledged to work in Parliament on national action that will end child poverty for all UK children.

For more details of the excellent work done by the Child Poverty Action Group, click here.

The charity Child Poverty Action Group has praised Chuka Umunna MP, Member of Parliament for Streatham, for pledging to become a Child Poverty Champion, working in his constituency to end child poverty by 2020.

Mr Umunna has also pledged to work in Parliament on national action that will end child poverty for all UK children. Lambeth is the nineteenth most deprived boroughs in England.

Shan Nicholas, Chief Executive of Child Poverty Action Group, said:

“All the main parties have committed to ending child poverty by 2020, but Chuka Umunna MP stands out as one of the first to have signed a personal pledge committing to action.

“Britain has one of the highest child poverty rates in Europe and this has an appalling impact on the life chances of many children. There is no reason why British children should suffer more than our neighbours and we are delighted that Chuka Umunna MP is so strongly committed to ending child poverty.”
Chuka Umunna MP said:

“My constituency includes some of the most deprived areas in the country, and I congratulate Child Poverty Action Group for their campaign highlighting this issue. I will work hard both in Westminster and in my constituency to press for this target to become a reality.”

Chuka Umunna, Member of Parliament for Streatham, has co-launched a campaign to stop loan sharks this week as a signatory to the End Legal Loan Sharking coalition.

In the Streatham constituency there exist high street lenders charging rates as high as 400% APR despite the Bank of England base rate having remained at just 0.5% since March 2009.

Mr Umunna was signatory to a letter published in The Guardian this week alongside academics, campaigners and other MPs calling on the government to introduce interest rate caps and increase access to affordable consumer credit.

The campaign cites strong evidence that interest rates which companies charge on short-term loans are not subject to competitive pressures because of a lack of alternative sources of credit and borrowers’ urgent need for ready cash.

Local organisations such as the London Mutual Credit Union which serves Lambeth and Southwark and of which Mr Umunna is a member, provide an alternative to loan sharks by lending small amounts of money while encouraging people to save.

Although the government has said it will regulate excessive interest rates on credit and store cards, it is not taking steps to regulate interest rates charged by lenders which most major European countries already do including France, Finland, Germany, Greece, Holland, and Italy.

Mr Umunna, who is a member of the Treasury Select Committee, is also joining the call for all retail banks to be legally obliged to provide people with a bank account and other financial services.

Mr Umunna said:

“Irresponsible lenders prey on vulnerable people in difficult financial situations, trapping them in cycles of debt through extortionate interest rates, and this is why we are calling on the government to cap the interest rates which consumers are charged on short-term loans.

“It is a scandal that there are predatory lenders on our doorstep here in Streatham charging such exorbitant rates of interest.

“London Mutual Credit Union is a great example of the kind of initiatives which the government should be supporting – increasing access to credit and helping people put savings aside.”

On Saturday Chuka spoke at a Living Wage action lunch at Windrush Square in Brixton, organised by South London Citizens, a grass roots charity working with local people to organise for change around local issues.

As well as promoting the living wage, the event celebrated the ongoing work that Lambeth Council is carrying out with South London Citizens on street safety and youth opportunities.

Chuka Umunna said: “I am a big supporter of the work of London Citizens. The National Minimum Wage, which Labour introduced, was a groundbreaking step and has benefitted millions of people.

“A Living Wage would build on this by adequately reflecting the high cost of living in London, which would help further the fight against low wages and poverty.”

The Labour Party Manifesto was the only to commit to introducing a living wage for all Whitehall employees.

This commitment to a living wage would be combined with and supported by measures that Labour would introduce to address high pay in the Public Sector. These commitments ensure that the Public Sector continues to lead the way in promoting a fair and equal working environment.

London Citizens welcomed the commitment from Labour and suggested that other parties have to play catch up on the issue.

If you are interested in getting more involved with the London Citizens there is a South London Citizens section that always welcomes volunteers.

Vulture funds seek to make profits through buying up debt from the world’s poorest countries, then trying to recover the full amount, often through suing the countries in court. They are grossly unfair and exacerbate already difficult situations for many countries.

Andrew Gwynne, Labour MP for Denton and Reddish, introduced a private members bill aiming to stop these companies and hedge funds operating in the UK. The Bill faced Conservative opposition throughout its passage through Parliament, culminating in an unnamed Conservative MP attempting to derail the Bill’s progress.

Not only has the Labour Government announced that it will work to pass the bill before Parliament is dissolved next week, the Labour Party has also become the only party to date to include a commitment to tackle vulture funds in its manifesto. The Jubilee Debt Campaign welcomed the addition, the Director, Nick Dearden, commented:

“We are delighted that the Government has agreed to support this vital legislation in their manifesto. Legislation would ensure that British courts could never again be used to help unscrupulous companies profit from the misery of the poorest people in the world.

“There is now no excuse for the opposition parties not matching the Government’s promise and including anti-vulture legislation amongst their own manifesto commitments.”

If you want to help or support the move to clamp down on vulture funds you can sign up at the Global Poverty Promise.

UPDATE: On April 8, the bill to ban Vulture Funds became law, making Britain the first country to ban profiteering from the debts of developing countries.

Chuka Ummuna has signed the Fairness Pledge, which is supported by the Fawcett Society, the Child Poverty Action Group and the London Citizens as well as numerous Trade Unions (including the Trade Union Congress). In signing this pledge Chuka has committed to combat working poverty.

Working poverty is when people who are working either part time or full time jobs but still fall below the poverty line. Almost 60% of children who live below the poverty line live in households where at least one adult works. To find out about the five core components of the fairness pledge and to watch a video explaining why working poverty is so damaging and what can be done to combat it go to the Fairness Pledge website.

The children’s charity 4Children has launched a campaign to protect the Sure Start programme, which has the support of the public services union Unison and Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families Ed Balls, along with Chuka.

While Labour is committed to the continuation of this well loved and hard fought-for programme, the Conservatives refuse to say whether or not they would protect the service.

‘Shout Out for a Sure Start’ aims to show how much support there is for the Sure Start programme among parents and in the wider community and demonstrate that attempts to make cuts will be met with firm resistance.

The Sure Start local programmes have been one of Labour’s flagship initiatives – before 1997 there were no Sure Start children centres, and last week – 12 years later – the Prime Minister and Ed Balls visited Streatham to open the country’s 3,500th centre. These centres are so important because they bring a variety of services under one roof, meaning that parents don’t have to navigate a number of disparate institutions in order to provide for their child’s wellbeing.

Ed Balls has referred to the Sure Start initiative as being a “new pillar of our welfare state for the 21st Century”. Sure Start provides childcare, healthcare, parenting advice, family support and opportunities to get back into work or training. Currently the service offers 12.5 hours of free early years childcare per week to children between 3-4 which will soon increase to 15 hours per week. Lambeth is one of thirty-four ‘pathfinder’ local authorities that is providing this service to all children between 3-4.

If you want to support your local Sure Start centre then you can sign the 4Children pledge and Ed Balls’ petition to Save our Sure Start. If you feel particularly strongly about one of Streatham’s ten excellent Sure Start centres then you could write to 4Children letting them know about your experience.

Anne Longfield OBE, the chief executive of 4Children, commented:

“Sure Start Children’s Centres are providing real help to families across the country but often this goes unsung. That is why we want to build a mass movement of people to ‘Shout out for a Sure Start’.

“We also know that there are families who have not yet discovered their local Children’s Centre so we hope to spread the word still further and inspire more parents to find out how their Sure Start Children’s Centre could support them through all the ups and downs of family life.”

10 SureStart Children’s Centres have been opened under the Labour government in the Streatham constituency since 1997.  Today, Prime Minister Gordon Brown MP, Children & Schools Secretary Ed Balls MP and the Health Secretary Andy Burnham MP opened Labour 3,500^th SureStart centre – Hitherfield Children’s Centre in Streatham.  By coincidence, Chuka attended Hitherfield nursery in his early years.  You can watch a video of Ed and Andy explaining what children’s centres do in Streatham and nationally below.

To mark Mother’s Day Glenys Kinnock, Minister of State for Africa and the United Nations, has launched a campaign in conjunction with Unions Together calling on David Cameron and the Conservative Party to come clean about the repercussions of their policy on Europe. The Conservative Party’s virulent anti-Europe position means that they could jeopardise mothers and workers rights.

Baroness Kinnock points out that European laws prevent discrimination against breast-feeding mums or on the basis of pregnancy. Most recently a European Directive on agency workers was transposed into a Statutory Instrument that provides greater protection for agency workers, including improved access to training and permanent jobs and equal treatment on pay and holiday pay.

To let Cameron know how you feel about mothers and workers rights ensured by our membership in the EU you can sign the petition at Unions Together. We can’t let the Conservatives’ anti-Europe dogma undermine hard-won rights.

This week the Trades Union Congress (TUC) released its report on women’s position in the recession and the disproportionate affect public service cuts would have on women. The report highlights how heavy cuts to the public sector would result in an increase in female unemployment and that heavy cuts to public sector pensions would also affect women the worst.

According to the Annual Business Inquiry, almost 40 per cent of women’s jobs are in the public sector, compared to just 15 per cent of men’s. Early cuts made to public sector would lead to an uneven increase in female unemployment as compared to male.

The TUC report notes that in the 5 regions where the male unemployment rate has been highest public sector jobs account for more than 40 per cent of women’s employment. This means that families already in a vulnerable position could be affected most by early deep spending cuts. As well as the risk of increased female unemployment, cuts made to public sector pensions could exacerbate the gender gap in pensions.

It’s for these families, who find themselves exposed to the volatility of the market that the Labour Party is putting securing economic recovery high on the agenda in their manifesto – and you can have your say over what should be included here.

The TUC General Secretary, Brendan Barber commented: “Slashing public spending may satisfy fiscal hawks and city traders but it would cause misery to millions of people who have already suffered from the recession.

“It’s hardly fair that these are now all under threat thanks to the mistakes of super-rich bankers, who are already back collecting their bonuses.

“When politicians talk about the need for deep spending cuts they rarely say how this would affect ordinary working people. But as our report makes clear – women would have to pay for these cuts with their jobs and pensions.

UNISON has launched a Million Voices for Public Services campaign – sign up and make your voice heard.