When the Labour Leader stood at the Dispatch box on Wednesday to propound his clever arguments at Prime Minister’s Questions his uninspiring opposition was neither targeted nor ‘forensic;’ it was the usual characteristic attempt to ask the same basic question in several different ways, failing dismally at each attempt. Sadly, Sir Keir Starmer has all the captivating exuberance of a stagnant pond, with the murky secrets of his dubious past polluting the fetid waters. It fell to other MPs like the SNPs Ian Blackford, Dr Rupa Huq, Labour and Daisy Cooper LibDem to highlight the glaring injustice and stark disparities between greedy Tory priorities and the hungry children conspicuously and callously left behind by Johnson’s fictitious ‘levelling up’ agenda. We need to call these selfish elitists out to stop the crippling ‘Decimating Down’ deliberately hitting the neglected northern cities the hardest with targeted lockdowns driving people into destitution. Beyond a cursory mention of Manchester, don’t expect Starmer to champion their cause.
In the Canary Article entitled, “Tory MPs face barrage of criticism after voting to let over a million children ‘go hungry’” they highlight the obscenity of voting to deny meals to hungry children. This is disgraceful considering the money plundered ans squandered by this Tory Government. They say, “Opposition figures have savaged the government after Tory MPs voted against footballer Marcus Rashford’s bid to have free school meals for eligible children extended through the coming holidays. Labour’s motion, which called for the scheme to be extended over school holidays until Easter 2021, was defeated by 261 votes to 322.” Visit the Government Petition webpage to sign this Petition to, “End child food poverty – no child should be going hungry Government should support vulnerable children & #endchildfoodpoverty by implementing 3 recommendations from the National Food Strategy to expand access to Free School Meals, provide meals & activities during holidays to stop holiday hunger & increase the value of and expand the Healthy Start scheme.”
The Canary report that, “Deputy Labour leader Angela Rayner said the Conservatives had voted to let the more than 1.4 million children eligible for free school meals go hungry through the holidays. ‘Tonight I voted to feed our country’s vulnerable and needy children. The Tories voted to let them go hungry,’ she tweeted, adding: ‘I voted for workers facing hardship in areas under lockdown to get 80% of their incomes. The Tories voted against it. That’s all you need to know.’ Labour MP for Nottingham East Nadia Whittome also attacked the Conservatives. ‘I don’t know how the 322 Tory MPs are sleeping tonight. Because I can’t, knowing that 1.4 million children like Cameron will go hungry this Christmas,’ she said, referring to a boy featured in a documentary she shared. She added: ‘Rishi Sunak spent £500m on the ‘Eat Out to Help Out’ scheme. It costs around £20m to provide free school meals for a week. There is money for half-price Nando’s but there’s no money to feed children?”
The Canary note that, “The Liberal Democrats’ health and social care spokeswoman Munira Wilson tweeted: ‘It would be hugely unjust for this Govt to allow children to go hungry this winter, particularly in the middle of a pandemic. I urged the Govt to follow the lead of Lib Dem Edu Minister Kirsty Williams in Wales by extending #FreeSchoolMeals over the school holidays. The Liberal Democrats’ health and social care spokeswoman Munira Wilson tweeted: ‘It would be hugely unjust for this Govt to allow children to go hungry this winter, particularly in the middle of a pandemic. I urged the Govt to follow the lead of Lib Dem Edu Minister Kirsty Williams in Wales by extending #FreeSchoolMeals over the school holidays’.”
The Canary report that, “Some Conservatives, however, defended the decision. Nottingham MP Ben Bradley engaged in a Twitter exchange with Rashford, writing: ‘Gov has lots of responsibilities: supporting the vulnerable, helping people to help themselves, balancing the books. Not as simple as you to make out Marcus. Extending FSM to sch hols passes responsibility for feeding kids away from parents, to the State. It increases dependency.’ Rashford tweeted back: ‘Ben, the economy already pays a high price for child hunger. If children were fed properly you would increase educational attainment and boost life chances. @KelloggsUKI calculated we would spend at least £5.2M a year on lost teaching hours as teachers are caring for hungry kids. ‘And for a more humane response, since March, 32% of families have suffered a drop in income. Nearly 1 million have fallen off the payroll. This is not dependency, this a cry for help. There are no jobs!! 250% increase in food poverty and rising. Nobody said this was simple…”
The Canary say, “Chief Executive of Child Poverty Action Group Alison Garnham said Britain had ‘reached a low point if in the midst of a pandemic we decide we can’t make sure children in the lowest income families have a nutritious meal in the middle of the day. Tonight’s vote means more children going without and more desperately anxious parents – just as a coronavirus winter approaches’.” Garnham was quoted as saying in the Mirror. “In short it ducks our moral responsibility to protect the country’s most vulnerable children. It will not sit well with all those people from many walks of life who back Marcus Rashford because they do not want child poverty to be ignored any longer.” Has the horrific truth sunk in yet, this is the reality of what the Tories call “levelling up” the removal of funds from the most vulnerable and in need to be sucked upwards into the bank accounts of wealthy Tory cronies, Powerful Corporations and Tory donors’ you realy had to know this was coming with the Tory track record: they never change!
But in a Skwawkbox Article entitled, “Breaking: Liverpool mayor announces city will provide free school meals during holidays to its vulnerable kids,” it reports Labour Councils are fighting back. “Almost 20,000 children written off by Tories will no longer go hungry as UK’s reddest city steps up Liverpool mayor Joe Anderson has just announced that the city will feed its poor children during school holidays, after the scandal this week of 322 Tory MPs voting not to provide food to kids who receive free school meals during term time – while the government denies financial support to parents who are told to self-isolate via the Tory contact-tracing app. The politically reddest city in the UK is stepping up because the national government is run by a party of people that thinks it’s ok to leave kids starving because there have always been hungry children. Bravo to Joe Anderson – who lost a brother to COVID last week and another to cancer recently – and his colleagues on the city council for protecting our kids and shaming the Tories.”
In the Skwawkbox Article entitled, “Sky News ‘forgets’ to mention MPs who voted to keep poor children hungry were Tories; Here is a list of them all” they name and shame the heartless MPs who do not care if kids go hungry. They point out how the Tories can hide their shame due to, “Appalling media bias once more on show as cruel Tories again vote to take food from the mouths of poor children Sky News omitted to mention an important fact during its coverage of the disgrace in Parliament this evening as Boris Johnson whipped his MPs to vote against a plan to provide free, hot meals for the nation’s poorest children. Sky tweeted the result, but neglected to mention that the MPs who had voted to keep poor children hungry during school holidays were Tory MPs – and was quickly pulled up by left-wing Labour MP Jon Trickett: 322 Tory MPs were either too callous or too weak to ignore Johnson’s instruction, instead voting – again – to take food out of the mouths of the nation’s most desperately poor kids.”
The Skwawkbox report that, “A few Tories abstained, but only a handful had the spine and humanity to rebel and vote for the motion to extend free meals in holidays through to next spring.” Just five Tory MPs who rebelled: Caroline Ansell, Robert Halfon, Anne Marie Morris, Holly Mumby-Croft and Jason McCartney. Skwawkbox say, “Almost a million and a half children suffer ‘food insecurity’ during school holidays and teachers report that many are too hungry to learn even during term time, with well over 4 million children living in poverty. Labour’s Angela Rayner was accused earlier today of calling a Tory MP ‘scum’. Based on today’s scandal, at least 322 of them merit that description.”
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Skwawkbox printed a full list of all the MP who callously voted against this bill.
The shamed Tories include a number who gained Red Wall seats the full list is as follows: Nigel Adams – Selby and Ainsty; Bim Afolami – Hitchin and Harpenden; Adam Afriyie – Windsor; Imran Ahmad Khan – Wakefield; Nickie Aiken – Cities of London and Westminster & Richard Bacon – South; Peter Aldous – Waveney; Lucy Allan – Telford; David Amess – Southend West; Lee Anderson – Ashfield; Stuart Anderson – Wolverhampton South West; Stuart Andrew – Pudsey; Edward Argar – Charnwood; Sarah Atherton – Wrexham; Victoria Atkins – Louth and Horncastle; Gareth Bacon – Orpington; Kemi Badenoch – Saffron Walden; Shaun Bailey – West Bromwich West; Duncan Baker – North Norfolk; Steve Baker – Wycombe; Harriett Baldwin – West Worcestershire; Steve Barclay – North East Cambridgeshire; Simon Baynes – Clwyd South; Aaron Bell – Newcastle-under-Lyme; Scott Benton – Blackpool South; Saqib Bhatti – Meriden; every last one of them Tories, but wait there’s a whole lot more…
For former Labour constituencies who might or probably were not duped by the false Tory promise of ‘levelling up’ finding their new MP in among those listed here should be a wakeup call’ it is time to stop this sham of the Covert 2019 Rigged Election. Oust these cruel bastards before they cause the working poor any more pain and suffering: Peter Bottomley – Worthing West’ Andrew Bowie – West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine; Karen Bradley – Staffordshire Moorlands; Graham Brady – Altrincham and Sale West; Suella Braverman – Fareham; Jack Brereton – Stoke-on-Trent South; Steve Brine – Winchester; Paul Bristow – Peterborough; Sara Britcliffe – Hyndburn; James Brokenshire – Old Bexley and Sidcup; Anthony Browne – South Cambridgeshire; Fiona Bruce – Congleton; Felicity Buchan – Kensington; Robert Buckland – South Swindon; Alex Burghart – Brentwood and Ongar; Rob Butler – Aylesbury; Alun Cairns – Vale of Glamorgan; Andy Carter – Warrington South; James Cartlidge – South Suffolk;
The following Tory MPs all chose to have Stuart Andrew cast a Proxy Vote on their behalf: Nickie Aiken – Cities of London and Westminster & Richard Bacon – South Norfolk; Miriam Cates – Penistone and Stocksbridge; Maria Caulfield – Lewes; Alex Chalk – Cheltenham; Rehman Chishti – Gillingham and Rainham; Jo Churchill – Bury St Edmunds’ Greg Clark – Tunbridge Wells; Simon Clarke – Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland; Damian Collins – Folkestone and Hythe; Alberto Costa – South Leicestershire; Geoffrey Cox – Torridge and West Devon; Mims Davies – Mid Sussex & David Davis – Haltemprice and Howden Nadine Dorries – Mid Bedfordshire & Steve Double – St Austell and Newquay; Ruth Edwards – Rushcliffe; Luke Evans – Bosworth; David Evennett – Bexleyheath and Crayford; Michael Fabricant – Lichfield; Mark Francois – Rayleigh and Wickford; Cheryl Gillan – Chesham and Amersham; Jo Gideon – Stoke-on-Trent Central; Helen Grant – Maidstone and The Weald; Oliver Heald – North East
These Tories also chose to have Stuart Andrew cast a Proxy Vote on their behalf: Hertfordshire; Ranil Jayawardena – North East Hampshire; Laura Farris – Newbury; Simon Fell – Barrow and Furness; Katherine Fletcher – South Ribble; Mark Fletcher – Bolsover; Nick Fletcher – Don Valley; Vicky Ford – Chelmsford; Kevin Foster – Torbay; Lucy Frazer – South East Cambridgeshire; Mike Freer – Finchley and Golders Green; Richard Fuller – North East Bedfordshire; Mark Garnier – Wyre Forest; Nick Gibb – Bognor Regis and Littlehampton; Peter Gibson – Darlington; John Lamont – Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk; Ian Liddell-Grainger – Bridgwater and West Somerset; Marco Longhi – Dudley North; Jonathan Lord – Woking; Karl McCartney – Lincoln; Mark Menzies – Fylde; Stephen Metcalfe – South Basildon and East Thurrock; Nigel Mills – Amber Valley; David Morris – Morecambe and Lunesdale; Guy Opperman – Hexham; Owen Paterson – North Shropshire; Mike Penning – Hemel Hempstead;
Stuart Andrew also cast a Proxy Vote on behalf of: Chloe Smith – Norwich North) Selaine Saxby – North Devon; Henry Smith – Crawley; Gary Streeter – South West Devon; Mel Stride (Conservative – Central Devon; Edward Timpson – Eddisbury; Jamie Wallis – Bridgend; David Warburton – Somerton and Frome. Other Tory MPs who used a Proxy vote were: Caroline Dinenage – Gosport (Proxy vote cast by Caroline Nokes); Natalie Elphicke – Dover (Proxy vote cast by Maria Caulfield); Nusrat Ghani – Wealden (Proxy vote cast by Steve Baker) Adam Holloway – Gravesham (Proxy vote cast by Maria Caulfield); George Freeman – Mid Norfolk (Proxy vote cast by Bim Afolami); Marcus Fysh – Yeovil (Proxy vote cast by Craig Mackinlay.
The Tory hall of shame continues with: Theo Clarke – Stafford; Brendan Clarke-Smith – Bassetlaw; Chris Clarkson – Heywood and Middleton; James Cleverly – Braintree; Thérèse Coffey – Suffolk Coastal; Robert Courts – Witney; Claire Coutinho – East Surrey; Virginia Crosbie – Ynys Môn; James Daly – Bury North; David T C Davies – Monmouth; James Davies – Vale of Clwyd; Gareth Davies – Grantham and Stamford; Philip Davies – Shipley; Dehenna Davison – Bishop Auckland; Sarah Dines – Derbyshire Dales; Jonathan Djanogly – Huntingdon; Michelle Donelan – Chippenham;Oliver Dowden – Hertsmere; Jackie Doyle-Price – Thurrock; Richard Drax – South Dorset; Flick Drummond – Meon Valley; David Duguid – Banff and Buchan; Iain Duncan Smith – Chingford and Woodford Green; Mark Eastwood – Dewsbury; Michael Ellis – Northampton North; Tobias Ellwood – Bournemouth East; George Eustice – Camborne and Redruth; Ben Everitt – Milton Keynes North; John Glen – Salisbury.
The list of shame is seemingly endless: Robert Goodwill – Scarborough and Whitby; Michael Gove – Surrey Heath; Richard Graham – Gloucester; James Gray – North Wiltshire; Chris Grayling – Epsom and Ewell; Chris Green – Bolton West; Damian Green – Ashford; Andrew Griffith – Arundel and South Downs; Kate Griffiths – Burton; James Grundy – Leigh; Jonathan Gullis – Stoke-on-Trent North; Luke Hall – Thornbury and Yate; Stephen Hammond – Wimbledon; Matt Hancock – West Suffolk; Greg Hands – Chelsea and Fulham; Mark Harper – Forest of Dean; Rebecca Harris – Castle Point; Trudy Harrison – Copeland; Sally-Ann Hart – Hastings and Rye; Simon Hart – Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire; John Hayes – South Holland and The Deepings; Chris Heaton-Harris – Daventry; Gordon Henderson – Sittingbourne and Sheppey; Darren Henry – Broxtowe; Antony Higginbotham – Burnley; Damian Hinds – East Hampshire; Kevin Hollinrake – Thirsk and Malton; Philip Hollobone – Kettering;
More Tories too feeble to stand up for poor kids: Paul Holmes – Eastleigh; John Howell – Henley; Paul Howell – Sedgefield; Nigel Huddleston – Mid Worcestershire; Eddie Hughes – Walsall North; Jane Hunt – Loughborough; Jeremy Hunt – South West Surrey; Tom Hunt – Ipswich; Alister Jack – Dumfries and Galloway; Sajid Javid – Bromsgrove; Mark Jenkinson – Workington; Andrea Jenkyns – Morley and Outwood; Robert Jenrick – Newark; Boris Johnson – Uxbridge and South Ruislip; Gareth Johnson – Dartford; David Johnston – Wantage; Andrew Jones – Harrogate and Knaresborough; Fay Jones – Brecon and Radnorshire; David Jones – Clwyd West; Marcus Jones – Nuneaton; Gillian Keegan – Chichester; Danny Kruger – Devizes; Kwasi Kwarteng – Spelthorne; Andrew Lewer – Northampton South; Brandon Lewis – Great Yarmouth; Caroline Johnson – Sleaford and North Hykeham; Simon Jupp – East Devon; Alicia Kearns – Rutland and Melton; Daniel Kawczynski – Shrewsbury and Atcham.
Yet more Tory cowards: Julian Knight – Solihull; Greg Knight – East Yorkshire; Robert Largan – High Peak; Andrea Leadsom – South Northamptonshire, yes that is the very same Andrea Leadsom who thought she would be a better PM because she was a mother… some mother who would let poor kids starve! Edward Leigh – Gainsborough; Ian Levy – Blyth Valley; Chris Loder – West Dorset; Mark Logan – Bolton North East; Julia Lopez – Hornchurch and Upminster; Jack Lopresti – Filton and Bradley Stoke; Craig Mackinlay – South Thanet; Cherilyn Mackrory – Truro and Falmouth; Rachel Maclean – Redditch; Alan Mak – Havant; Kit Malthouse – North West Hampshire; Anthony Mangnall – Totnes; Scott Mann – North Cornwall; Julie Marson – Hertford and Stortford; Theresa May – Maidenhead; Jerome Mayhew – Broadland; Johnny Mercer – Plymouth, Moor View; Huw Merriman – Bexhill and Battle; Robin Millar – Aberconwy; Maria Miller – Basingstoke; Amanda Milling – Cannock Chase; Andrew Mitchell – Sutton Coldfield.
People need to read these names and confront the MPs who are not protecting children from starvation: Gagan Mohindra – South West Hertfordshire; Robbie Moore – Keighley; Penny Mordaunt – Portsmouth North; James Morris – Halesowen and Rowley Regis; Wendy Morton – Aldridge-Brownhills; Kieran Mullan – Crewe and Nantwich; David Mundell – Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale; Sheryll Murray – South East Cornwall; Andrew Murrison – South West Wiltshire; Robert Neill – Bromley and Chislehurst; Caroline Nokes – Romsey and Southampton North; Jesse Norman – Hereford and South Herefordshire; Neil O’Brien – Harborough; Mark Pawsey – Rugby; John Penrose – Weston-super-Mare; Chris Philp – Croydon South; Christopher Pincher – Tamworth; Rebecca Pow – Taunton Deane; Victoria Prentis – Banbury; Mark Pritchard – The Wrekin; Jeremy Quin – Horsham; Will Quince – Colchester; Tom Randall – Gedling; John Redwood – Wokingham; Jacob Rees-Mogg – North East Somerset.
The list is long: Nicola Richards – West Bromwich East; Angela Richardson – Guildford; Rob Roberts – Delyn; Laurence Robertson – Tewkesbury; Mary Robinson – Cheadle; Andrew Rosindell – Romford; Lee Rowley – North East Derbyshire; Dean Russell – Watford; David Rutley – Macclesfield; Gary Sambrook – Birmingham, Northfield; Paul Scully – Sutton and Cheam; Bob Seely – Isle of Wight; Andrew Selous – South West Bedfordshire; Grant Shapps – Welwyn Hatfield; Alok Sharma – Reading West; Alec Shelbrooke – Elmet and Rothwell; David Simmonds – Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner; Chris Skidmore – Kingswood; Greg Smith – Buckingham; Julian Smith – Skipton and Ripon; Amanda Solloway – Derby North; Ben Spencer – Runnymede and Weybridge; Mark Spencer – Sherwood; Alexander Stafford – Rother Valley; Andrew Stephenson – Pendle; Jane Stevenson – Wolverhampton North East; John Stevenson – Carlisle; Bob Stewart – Beckenham; Iain Stewart – Milton Keynes South.
Then there is ‘splash the cash’ Rishi Sunak – Richmond (Yorks) not so ready to part with pounds to feed school kids, but the rogues gallery continues: James Sunderland – Bracknell; Desmond Swayne – New Forest West; Robert Syms – Poole; Derek Thomas – St Ives; Maggie Throup – Erewash; Kelly Tolhurst – Rochester and Strood; Justin Tomlinson – North Swindon; Michael Tomlinson – Mid Dorset and North Poole; Craig Tracey – North Warwickshire; Anne-Marie Trevelyan – Berwick-upon-Tweed; Laura Trott – Sevenoaks; Tom Tugendhat – Tonbridge and Malling; Martin Vickers – Cleethorpes; Matt Vickers – Stockton South; Theresa Villiers – Chipping Barnet; Robin Walker – Worcester; Charles Walker – Broxbourne; Matt Warman – Boston and Skegness; Giles Watling – Clacton; Suzanne Webb – Stourbridge; Helen Whately – Faversham and Mid Kent; Heather Wheeler – South Derbyshire; Craig Whittaker – Calder Valley; John Whittingdale – Maldon; Bill Wiggin – North Herefordshire.
The last disreputable few are: James Wild – North West Norfolk; Craig Williams – Montgomeryshire; Gavin Williamson – South Staffordshire; Mike Wood – Dudley South; William Wragg – Hazel Grove; Jeremy Wright – Kenilworth and Southam; Jacob Young – Redcar; Nadhim Zahawi – Stratford-on-Avon. All Tories except one shamefull indepentdent: Julian Lewis – New Forest East. Yet Skwawkbox say that, “Sky simply called them ‘MPs’. Shame on the whole disgraceful lot of them.”
In another Skwawkbox Article entitled, “Swindon academy shows infection rate more than 333 TIMES higher than surrounding community” we get a strong hint of why the Tory Government is so adamant about denying free school meals to children when they are not in school. They say that, “The Wilkes Academy in Swindon has been closed after seeing a level of coronavirus infections more than 333 times as high as in the community around it. The town’s overall 14-day rate stands at 92 infections per 100,000 – but the equivalent rate in the school is 30,481 per 100,000, a rate of over 30 percent. Pupils have been sent home and face to face classes suspended in response to 85 pupils and staff infected out of a population of around 270.” Despite growing damning evidence that Covid is being spread via the schools the Tory Government is absolutely determined to keep children in school.
Skwawkbox say that, “The government continues to deny that the infection spreads freely among children and from them to others They are wilfully ignoring the clear fact that keeping schools open is fuelling the second wave, while pointlessly closing hospitality venues. Hospitality represents around 4% of new infections in England – and school-age children more than a third. Johnson’s lockdown delays in the spring caused tens of thousands of needless deaths. His latest refusal to institute a ‘circuit-breaker’ lockdown in England is expected to cost at least 1,000 lives a week from now through to April.” This wilful negligence is a conscious eugenics decision to use children as unwitting vectors to assist in culling the elderly and most vulnerable ‘economically inactive to lower their burden on the state. We must fight back to derail their Covicide, demand an Investigation into the Covert 2019 Rigged Election to delegitimize the result and therby remove the Tories from office before more people die needlessly. DO NOT MOVE ON!