This week has been a very personal one for me. As many local residents will know, just over a year ago, Theresa May made a promise to me that she would create a Children’s Funeral Fund in England following my longstanding campaign on this issue. Of course, at the time, I was delighted that the Prime Minister had heard my calls on behalf of families up and down the UK to help parents during their darkest hour. Sadly, her failure to deliver has meant that families living in England still don’t have the right to access such a fund even to this day.
On Wednesday, I secured an Adjournment Debate on this issue to put more pressure on the government to finally deliver on their promise. This was a very emotional experience for me – as it is every time I speak out on this issue in Parliament. I’m so grateful to colleagues from all political parties who contributed so warmly to the debate and who have offered their support both before and after it took place. I hope that this debate has shone a light on the Children’s Funeral Fund once again and encouraged Theresa May to establish the fund as soon as possible. You can watch the full debate here.
Also this week, I was really pleased to hold the inaugural meeting of our new All-Party Parliamentary Group on Beauty. This gave us a positive opportunity to meet and discuss our work plan for the coming weeks and months. During the meeting, we also elected cross-party officers who will help to steer this work forwards. I’ll be sure to keep constituents up-to-date with how my work on this topic continues.
Several of the other meetings I’ve had this week have been in relation to gambling related harm, building on my ongoing work to tackle the scourge of gambling addiction. It really does feel like we’re making progress in this area but, particularly while the Tories are still in Number 10, we can never afford to be complacent. Likewise, we know that the gambling industry will do anything they can to work around the progress we have made and further target the most vulnerable. That’s why this work is so important and why I will continue to push for greater regulation of our gambling industry before it is allowed to ruin any more lives.
This weekend, I’m really excited to be heading to Swansea Pride! It’s always a brilliant day, so please do come along if you’re around! I’m sure there’ll be lots of flags to wave (and I do love a flag…!). You can view the event programme here: www.swanseapride.co.uk. There have been events throughout the week to celebrate pride across the city. Indeed, I really enjoyed popping along to “Swansea Pride Hits the Dancefloor” last night in Brangwyn which was hosted by EastEnders Actor, Charlie Brooks.
Likewise, if you’re not in Swansea, Welsh Labour are holding a national campaign day on Saturday. If you’ve got a few hours to get out on the Labour doorstep to get out and spread our positive message to our communities, please do! With Farage and the far right on the march, there’s never been a more important time to get out there and make the case for Labour values. Find a campaign event near you here: www.events.labour.org.uk.
