Member

The ongoing genocide was a huge factor in my election, but it was not the only factor. Voters in Dewsbury and Batley have been hit hard by 14 years of Tory austerity and decades of local government failure that have decimated our public services. In one of my wards, three in five children are now living in poverty. Across Kirklees, the most deprived people live, on average, eight years less than the least deprived. It simply defies belief that among the first actions of this Labour Government was to pick the pockets of pensioners by taking away their winter fuel allowance and to refuse to lift the two-child benefit cap.