Carolyn Harris, MP for Swansea East, has condemned a UK Government decision to cancel the Labour Party’s Opposition Day Debate which would have brought about a vote on plans to cut Universal Credit at the end of the month, following a campaign to keep children in Swansea East fed throughout the summer holidays.
Carolyn Harris’ annual summer lunch club supported many hard working families throughout the constituency with lunches and activities for their children during the school holidays. Harris has also supported many other events in the constituency through providing drinks and snacks to local clubs and community centres. After 18 months of the pandemic, family finances are getting tight for so many households, so the lunch scheme aimed to take off some of the additional stresses the summer holidays can bring.
Despite the number of families in the UK relying on the £20 a week uplift to Universal Credit to get by, the Tories have shelved a vote on their plans to cut Universal Credit and plan to go ahead with proposals to cut Universal Credit at the end of September.
This will affect 9420 households in Swansea East who currently claim Universal Credit or Working Tax Credits, including many of the families who benefited from Harris’ summer lunch scheme. The planned £20 a week cut would take £ 9,796,800 out of the constituency, leaving families worse off and risking pushing thousands into poverty.
Carolyn Harris, MP for Swansea East, said:
“The summer holidays can be a difficult time for families, with extra costs and difficulty taking time off work, so each summer I run a campaign to help feed as many kids as possible and put on activities to help parents with childcare.
“With the pandemic ongoing, this summer has been more important than ever, and after a long summer of campaigning it was devastating to see the Tories cancel a vote aiming to reverse the plans to cut Universal Credit.
“Thousands of families in Swansea East rely on this extra £20 to just get by on the basics. Children will also be harmfully impacted by the cut, with over half of the families in Swansea East on Universal Credit having children in the house. This is such a morally wrong decision from the UK Government, they must think again.”
