Yvette Cooper MP: We need a General Election – now!

Yvette Cooper MP writes: Boris Johnson’s honours list is a disgrace. While he helps his mates and people who organised Covid parties to get honours, the people who worked hard on the NHS frontline through the crisis are still being ignored. He even tried to get a knighthood for his dad. For what? If he wants to know how the honours system should really work, he should look at the thousands of people across Yorkshire and the country who are backing the campaign to get honours for Kevin Sinfield, Rob and Lindsey Burrow for their incredible work to help others with MND. The contrast couldn’t be greater.

But while the Conservative Party still thinks it is one rule for them and another for everyone else, people across the country are being badly let down. I spoke to a dad on a school gate in Pontefract last week, at his wits end about how he was going to make ends meet and afford any kind of family holiday this summer. Or the carer in Castleford, who told me she didn’t get paid when she had to self-isolate because she was on a zero hours contract.

Mortgage holders are facing a tough time ahead too. Rates are rising fast as a result of the government crashing the economy last autumn and their failed economic decisions ever since. Yet Rishi Sunak is completely out of touch, flying round the country in helicopters and private planes filming slick videos rather than sorting the real problems in the country out.

But instead of supporting working people, this week the government is trying to make things even worse with legislation in Parliament that puts rights at risk like maternity protections, paid holidays, or the length of the working week. That’s an appalling way to treat people who are working hard every day to support their families and to keep our country going. It doesn’t have to be like this. Our communities remain strong – as we see every time people come together, from the Pontefract Wheelfest to the Castleford Roman Festival this weekend. But working people need a fair deal not just a race to the bottom. And the Yorkshire economy and our town centres need proper support from the government. We need to make it easier for parents to juggle work and family life and end the disgraceful fire and rehire practices that leave working people insecure.

After 13 years of Conservative government it feels like everything is broken and getting worse. While Conservative prime ministers and former prime ministers argue amongst themselves, our communities deserve better than this. The by-elections are a chance for people in Selby, Uxbridge and Mid Bedfordshire to have their say on the chaos this government has caused. But that’s not enough. We can’t carry on like this any longer. Everyone else needs the chance to vote on them too. We need a General Election now