“It is sickening to see child abuse, one of the most serious of all issues, being used as a political football.”
Richard Burgon MP
Ahead of the vote in Parliament today on the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, Richard Burgon MP has hit out at the use of child abuse as a political football.
Today you are going to be fed a complete lie by the Conservative Party about a vote in Parliament this evening on the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill. This will be pushed by their social media mouthpieces as well as other right-wing voices, including the billionaire owners of social media sites. But you should not believe a word of it.
MPs are today voting on a Bill which aims to improve children’s education and wellbeing through measures that will help limit school uniform costs, introduce free breakfast clubs, make important reforms to academy schools, introduce a power to cap the profits made by children’s social care providers and create a compulsory Children Not in School register among other measures.
It is not a vote on a national inquiry into child sexual exploitation. Nor is there any Amendment which would add such an Inquiry to the Bill. Nor is one possible at this stage of a Bill. Any politician who says there is such an Amendment is lying to you.
There is simply game-playing by the Tories, who do have an Amendment, but an Amendment which would throw out the whole Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill.
Even if the Tory Amendment were passed, it would not add an Inquiry to the Bill – it would simply kill the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, preventing all its positive measures being passed.
The Tories know all this, but they are continuing with their totally cynical and deliberate campaign of confusion (as part of their fight for survival in their political battle with Reform).
It is sickening to see child abuse, one of the most serious of all issues, being used as a political football in this way.
Today you are going to be fed a complete lie by the Conservative Party about a vote in Parliament this evening on the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill. This will be pushed by their social media mouthpieces as well as other right-wing voices, including the owner of this site.…
— Richard Burgon MP (@RichardBurgon) January 8, 2025
- This text was originally published by Richard Burgon MP on Twitter/X.
- Richard Burgon is the MP for Leeds East, the Secretary of the Socialist Campaign Group of MPs and a regular contributor to Labour Outlook. You can follow him on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and TikTok.
I don’t care if you are turning right turning left or going around a roundabout. One of the most important things we can in our lives is care for our kids, not just our kids all kids. At least 1400 kids have been terribly abused by gangs of men
Our elected representative and the Police are supposed to keep the law. If there was no elected representatives or Police. We would take matters into our own hands. Stop spending your time scoring political point on each other. If you believe in the rule of law and think no one is above the law get on with your real job deal protecting our people and society. If you don’t care about the law why should we.