Angela Eagle: Vow to carry on fighting for a fairer, more equal country

Oct 5 2011 Wallasey News

AT LABOUR Party Conference last week I spoke about how proud Liverpool’s first female MP “battling” Bessie Braddock would have been to see the event being held in her city for the first time.

She was a passionate campaigner and fought hard against poverty, hunger and unemployment. Liverpool and Wirral were revitalised under Labour after years of Tory neglect and I worry that those days are returning.

Last year the Government introduced spending cuts and tax rises which go further and faster than any other advanced economy except Iceland and Ireland. That has made us much more vulnerable as the global situation has worsened.

They also made a political choice to put women and children in the frontline of those cuts. From closed Sure Start centres, cuts to child tax credits, and job losses, women are bearing the brunt of this Government’s reckless economic experiment.

I came into politics to make a difference and to work for a fairer more equal country, and I am proud of our record in Government – Sure Start, the minimum wage, halving child and pensioner poverty, building new schools and hospitals. But much of the good we did is now being undone.

I’m not prepared to sit on the sidelines and let that happen. I haven’t spent the past 35 years in politics fighting for Labour values to let a Government led by the privileged few for the privileged few carry on killing opportunity for the many. I promise not to let that happen without a fight.