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Friday, November 22, 2024

The Peace & Justice Project responds to the King’s Speech

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“Today, the new Labour government laid out its legislative plans in the King’s Speech and, whilst there are a few commitments to celebrate, there are far more glaring omissions that would go a long way to building a fairer society for all.

With that said, we wholeheartedly welcome plans to bring our railways back into public ownership and end no fault evictions for renters – policies that are key elements in our 5 Demands to build an alternative to the misery faced by millions. We also welcome the intention to introduce the Hillsborough Law and Martyn’s Law to ensure accountability and justice for the victims of gross systemic failings. As well as this, we are pleased to see the long-awaiting conversion therapy ban remain on the parliamentary agenda and hope that the introduction of this law will end the cruelty faced by far too many experiencing gender dysphoria and play a key role in a kinder and dignified level of healthcare needed by transgender and non-binary people.

However, the complete and utter moral failure to abolish the disgusting and punitive two-child benefit cap, which was implemented by the Tories and has pushed countless families into poverty. The pleas from numerous campaigners have fallen on deaf ears in the new government. We totally condemn the lack of political will from Keir Starmer’s Labour Party who, make no mistake, have made the conscious choice to keep millions of children in destitution and food insecurity.

With the King arriving to Parliament in a golden carriage in a crown of diamonds to read the parliamentary plans of a party who have accepted millions of pounds in donations from the wealthy elite, the argument that there isn’t enough money to end this unnecessary suffering simply doesn’t hold water. We therefore call on the government to abolish the two-child benefit cap immediately.

We condemn, too, the failure to commit to a fully-public, free at point-of-use National Health Service, with all traces of outsourcing and profiteering completely dismantled. The NHS must be protected at all costs and its future secured through taxing the richest individuals and corporations.

The same must be said for the absence of policies to tackle the climate crisis. After 14 years of Conservative chaos and damage to vital public services, the government needs to recognise the scale of the challenge we face as a planet to secure our sustainable future. Labour’s short-lived £28 billion climate investment was a positive step in the right direction to ensure Britain plays its part in overcoming this phenomenal task, however, we are gravely disappointed that this policy has suffered the same fate as most other Starmer pledge.

We need a Green New Deal that invests in sustainable energy, brings down rip-off energy bills and brings energy and water back into public ownership, alongside our railways and the Royal Mail.

In outlining their plans, the Labour government have also grievously failed to make any commitment to end the ongoing genocide in Palestine. With over 40,000 innocent men, women and children killed by Israeli forces in their destruction of Gaza, the government must immediately end arms sales to Israel and end British complicity in the death, destruction and displacement experienced by millions.

Keir Starmer cannot ignore the UK’s role in ongoing conflicts and refugee crisis. We call on the government to work tirelessly to bring about peace in Europe, the Middle East and around the world whilst supporting those fleeing war, poverty and persecution with a migration system based on safe routes, compassion and dignity.

Whilst we recognise we are only a matter of weeks into the new Labour government, but it is clear that they have already failed their first major test in standing up for the many, not just the few.”

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