At Lib Dem conference, we spoke to the new MP Claire Young
Claire Young is the new Lib Dem MP for Thornbury and Yate – a constituency in South Gloucestershire.
At the Liberal Democrats’ autumn conference in Brighton, Young spoke to Left Foot Forward about her verdict on the early days of the Labour government and the issues she wants to prioritise as an MP.
Young’s priorities are similar to those of many of her fellow Lib Dem MPs. Throughout this year’s conference, the party’s leadership and spokespeople have spoken extensively about wanting to fix problems in the NHS, SEND education and pollution in Britain’s waterways.
Young told Left Foot Forward that she intends to provide ‘constructive opposition’ to the Labour government on these issues, a phrase that has been used extensively by MPs throughout the conference.
What does that mean in practice? Young said: “Well, what it means is rather than just opposing everything because you’re in opposition, you look at what they’re actually putting forward and you recognise that there’s some bits you agree with and the bits you don’t you try to suggest improvements.
“And we’ve got lots of good ideas on things and we have lots of strong campaigns, on the NHS and social care, and river pollution, and the cost of living crisis. And if we can persuade them to look at some of the ideas we had during the election, some of the ideas that we put forward, then I think that’s constructive opposition.”
On those bits that Young does disagree with the government on, the cuts to Winter Fuel Allowance comes up. She said she was “obviously disappointed” by the decision here, adding that it has “caused a lot of anxiety for my elderly residents”. By contrast, she welcomed the “positive sounding noises” she said the government is making on climate policy.
Of all the issues Young mentioned, the one she spoke most extensively about is SEND education. She told Left Foot Forward that in relation to the big issues in SEND, “absolutely funding is at the route of it all”, but that she has specific and particular concerns about how absence from schools is handled in the SEND context.
“I’m particularly concerned about the way we treat absence in this country,” she said, going on to add: “There’s been a lot of hard-line rhetoric on absence, both from the previous government, and now worryingly from this one too. Sadly, there are a lot of children who are not in school because they are not having their needs met.
She then said that “threatening to prosecute parents” for children’s absence “who often already have been fighting the system, trying to get the help their child needs and not getting it” “ruins the parent-school relationship”.
Young isn’t the only senior Lib Dem who has talked about prioritising SEND. Munira Wilson – the party’s education spokesperson – made it a key plank of her keynote speech to this week’s conference. Clearly, we’ll be hearing much more from the Lib Dems on this as this parliament rumbles on.
Chris Jarvis is head of strategy and development at Left Foot Forward
Image credit: UK Parliament – Creative Commons
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