Labour leadership hustings - Webchat with Yvette Cooper TODAY Friday 24 July at 2.30pm

[BojanaMumsnet]

Hello

Ahead of the Labour leadership election, we’ll be hosting webchats with all four candidates - Andy Burnham, Yvette Cooper, Jeremy Corbyn and Liz Kendall.

Due to the candidates’ busy schedules (it’s like herding cats), we haven’t been able to get everyone in one room at the same time, so we’ll kick off tomorrow with Yvette Cooper, MP for Normanton, Pontefract and Castleford and Shadow Home Secretary, who will join us for a live webchat on Friday 24 July, 2.30pm - 3.15pm.

In the last Labour government Yvette served as Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Chief Secretary to the Treasury and Housing Minister. She is a big fan of Dr Who and the Sound of Music. She has three children, and (as you probably know) she’s married to Ed Balls, Labour’s former Shadow Chancellor.

Before the general election, Yvette launched Labour’s Women’s Manifesto with Harriet Harman and Gloria de Piero, featuring the infamous ‘pink bus’ (or ‘magenta bus’ if you’re that way inclined). She has been involved in policy issues ranging from violence against women and compulsory sex ed, to immigration, policing and national security.

Please join us for the webchat at 2.30pm tomorrow if you can, or post a question for Yvette here in advance if you can’t.

Labour leadership voting is open until Thursday 10 September and the ballot results will be released on Saturday 12 September.

Thanks

MNHQ

I don't understand why, during the election campaign, every time an interviewer mentioned that the Labour Party candidate they were interviewing had no experience of running a company, the answer was not "I'm not wanting to run a company, I want to run a country, which is NOT THE SAME THING! "

I feel the Labour party were too interested in trying to say the right things to the electorate, and appear to have no actual policies based on their political principles.

What is your view on that?

How much priority do you give to telling the truth about child sex abuse by MPs and government officials, including - and most importantly - ones who are still alive and working in government?

My question is.

Why should I have to pay for Andy Burnhams guy liner ?

Hi Yvette

At the hustings I went to Jeremy made a good point about shifting the debate to make the case for Labour principles such as the welfare state. I see too much responding in new right terms to the new right agenda from Labour at the moment.

What scope do you think there is for labour setting the debate and making the argument for more socialist ways of seeing the world, rather than just responding within a neoliberal conversation?

Ps I'm pretty sure you have my vote, although I keep wavering to Jeremy.

Why cant we vote for Nicola sturgeon? i would love to vote for her, why are we not given the option? Labour and the cons and Lib dems can have votes from all the countrys so why cant she?

I'm going to echo textfans question a bit.

If you were Labour leader what would your strategy be in Scotland to regain the voters' trust?

How would you support parents of disabled children & carers? Our children are been denied basic rights and we are been pushed to breaking point with cuts to services. I like yiur stance on child care but how would you ensure it includes disabled children & young people.

Totally wanted to echo the posters asking why labour needs to swing right.

24.4% of the electorate voted tory. That isn't a massive endorsement of right wing, austerity based policies in my book. Certainly not a mandate to chase off to the right after the tories...more the total opposite I think.

Hi Yvette,

I was a PPC for the Labour Party in 2015. I will be voting for you and have registered my interest to help with your campaign.

I would like to know what you will do to help parents with childcare costs from when their babies are 1. After a year's maternity leave mothers must return to work or lose their jobs. Currently my nursery charges £16,000 a year for 5 days a week for rather sub-standard childcare that has stunted my daughter's development. It costs £7000 more than the local prep school. My salary is swallowed up by this and I feel I am paying to go back to work...to pay tax. As a result I have dropped my working hours to 3 days a week.

Free childcare from the age of 3 does not help parents like me given that maternity leave ends when a child is 1 not 3. In fact as Newsnight discussed yesterday increasing free childcare for 3 - 4 year olds may punish parents with babies in nursery as the nurseries may pass on some of the extra costs to them. If that is the case then either my husband or I will have to give up our jobs because we simply won't be able to afford the nursery fees. I would like to add that we are not poorly paid either. We are professionals and not entitled to tax credits, but we are really struggling financially with the childcare costs.

Thank you

MNHQ testing

Yvette, I have a few questions for you:

1. Some of the leadership candidates are visiting the South West to give local party members an opportunity to meet/talk to/listen to them. Will you be visiting too?

1. What are your policies on the arts and arts education? This is an area which has been largely ignored by all the leadership (and most of the dputy leadership) candidates which sadly speaks volumes in itself...

1. Are there any of Jeremy Corbyn's stated policy positions with which you agree, and any which you might adopt yourself?

Yvette, why is there so much push for Women to work when they have young children? It seems you view us as robots here to pay tax like the Tory party do.

Women should be able to choose and not be financially/socially forced to work if they would rather be a SAHM?

Children will do better in the care of their Mother rather than the substandard care other posters describe surely?

Hi Yvette, do you not agree that the public popularity of your opponent Jeremy Corbyn suggests that many Labour MP's centre right views are not in line with the more left wing views of a good proportion of the Labour supporting public? Are Labour fairly representing their voters opinions in the House of Commons?

Yvette, will you stand in 2020 for Labour and the Women's Equality Party?

Hi everyone, thank you for sending in messages or joining the chat. I'm sitting at my computer in my office in Castleford typing here - normally when i've done Mumsnet webchats i've been in Mumsnet Towers (with biscuits!) so forgive me if i'm a little slower responding from here

Hi Yvette,

I'd like to know how, if you're elected leader, how do you plan to get people engaged enough to vote? There's such apathy for politics, as the turnout shows. I'd love to know what you think can be done to capture the people who don't vote and get them to vote labour.

Thanks

@JugglingFromHereToThere

Hi Yvette, Welcome to Mumsnet! Will hopefully be on my way to the Lake District tomorrow for a few days away with friends and family in a lovely hostel between Coniston and Windermere so won't be able to join the webchat live .... so anyway, a question ..... I joined the Labour party after feeling very disappointed that we didn't get a change of government after the last election even though I was supporting and even standing in the locals for The Green Party. It was an interesting experience and has left me more pragmatic about my politics especially given our present FPTP system. Nevetheless as you might guess I'd like to see the Labour Party offering a more radical and particularly anti-austerity agenda. From everything I've read from and about the leadership candidates you get my vote (having a say was one reason I joined)

I think my question for today will be where do you stand on the austerity/ anti-austerity spectrum?
Do you think some austerity measures are needed for the well-being of the economy or do you think all the cuts to public services are ideologically driven and un-necessary? Or perhaps somewhere in between?
Personally - like many people I guess - I do find economics fairly confusing (even though I did an economics course in first year at Uni)
I'd be interested in your take on things

Hi JugglingFromHereToThere

Am v jealous of you going to the Lake District – my parents have a caravan there and we love to go stay.

Like you I was devastated at the election result – and more importantly at what it means for so many people who depended on getting a Labour Government.

George Osborne’s latest plans for a 40% cut to public spending aren’t about getting the deficit down, they are an ideological assault on our public services from a Tory chancellor. I also don’t think we should swallow the Tory myths about Labour’s record - it wasn’t the deficit that caused the financial crisis, it was the financial crisis that caused the deficit, and we shouldn’t apologise for Labour Government spending on the NHS, schools or Sure Start.

Now that the economy is growing again, the debt and deficit do need to come down in a way that is fair. We can’t wish them away, but we can bring them down in a sensible, balanced way which doesn’t hit those on the lowest income hardest, includes getting the economy growing with more high quality jobs, more action on tax avoidance and tax evasion, and savings such as those I identified in the Home Office like abolishing Police and Crime Commissioners and stopping the subsidy for gun licences.

Hey Yvette

Housing crisis - given the UK is now rental, similar to NY and Paris, are you going to introduce rent controls and regulation for crappy landlords the way these cities do? If not, why not?

@HowD

Yvette, will you stand in 2020 for Labour and the Women's Equality Party?

I think Labour must always BE the womens equality party. Keir Hardie was one of the first to back the suffragettes, Barbara Castle and the Dagenham trade unionists delivered the Equal Pay Act, we've campaigned over the years for stronger laws on violence against women, equalising women's pensions, more childcare, better maternity leave, stronger protection against discrimination - all issues I feel very strongly about. Though it would be nice if after over 100 years of campaigning on women's equality we could break through our last glass ceiling and have our first elected woman leader and Labour woman Prime Minister too.....

Amen to that :)

Hi Yvette

General election campaign, your husband losing his seat, Labour losing the election, now a leadership campaign...

aren't you absolutely cream crackered?

Do you think Ed Miliband should have stayed on for six months or so to give the Labour party a chance to sort its head out a bit?

Oh and are you tough enough to lead the Labour party (that one's for Charlie Falconer)

You're doing your own typing!
I had visions of a whole team typing away. Hope ed is keeping the kids occupied and bringing you biscuits.

@ghostyslovesheep

I am a party member - can you tell me why you voted in favour of welfare cuts that will have a huge impact on families like mine?

I am a WORKING lone parent who receives CTC and some WTC - next year I will be £1800 worse off. I work in the public sector so my pay will rise by 1% to compensate.

How is this fair on ordinary families? How can MY party support this and other cuts to the most vulnerable in our society ?

Why not target tax evasion and tax fraud with the same vigour?

I am considering leaving the party I have been a member of for 30 years because I am fed up with the treatment of the poor in this country and the parties failure to stand up for the people who are suffering under this government.

Why should I continue to support you?

Hi ghostyslovesheep

A lot of people have asked about the welfare bill vote on Monday.

I agree with you that the Tories cuts to CTC and WTC are completely wrong, unfair and will hit families really hard – and I didn’t vote for them.

In fact they will hit women twice as hard as men and are another example of the way the Government doesn’t get the reality of working parent’s lives.

The truth is that Labour’s handling of the Welfare Reform Bill was a complete mess. In fact Labour did vote against the Bill – by voting for an amendment that would have stopped the whole Bill going through. But that’s got lost in the muddle around the abstention on the second vote, which was frankly an unsuccessful compromise to hold the Parliamentary party together.

I think we have to oppose these plans. And if we can’t get the changes we need at the next stage in Parliament, we must vote against them, and we will if I’m elected leader of the Labour Party.

Not just the cuts to tax credits you talked about, but also the two child policy. Most of the families it will hit are working parents with three children, and many will end up worse off as a result. It’s effectively a tax on children, and I launched a campaign on it yesterday. You can read more about it here: www.yvetteforlabour.co.uk/welfarevote

@DoesItReallyMatter

Well someone's got to ask and it might as well be me.

Can you please tell us what your favourite biscuit is ?

Chocolate hobnobs, but have to say I really can’t walk past an open packet of crisps without diving in. Salt N Vinegar are definitely my favourite.

@pastaofplenty

Hi Yvette I left the Labour Party in 2001 - what motive can YOU give me to join again (aside from to vote for Jeremy Corbyn)? Thank you

Hi pastaofplenty,

Join the Labour Party to fight for social justice, to stand up for those who are being hit hard by this Tory Government, and to get a Labour Government elected in its place.

The thing I’m proudest of that a Labour Government did was bring in Sure Start and childrens centres – I was one of the Ministers responsible for rolling out Sure Start nearly fifteen years ago, and I think it is incredibly important to help families at the very start of life – its such an important time. Yesterday I was at the brilliant Golden Lane Childrens Centre in London – built by a Labour government and providing amazing support for local families. But the tragedy is that childrens centres are now being closed or undermined right across the country. I want the Labour Party to stand up for all our childrens future, and I want to us to deliver more Sure Starts and childrens centres across Britain. Join and help me.

And that does also mean we have to be elected, and we need a Labour leader who can reach out to the country and be a Labour Prime Minister. The reason I’m against turning the clock back to the 1980s is because I remember years of marches and protests that in the end didn’t change anything. Its not enough for us to be angry at the world, we’re the Labour party and we have a responsibility to change the world or we let too many people down.

I hate what the Tories are doing to our country – the widening gap between rich and poor, the fractured communities, the politics of division and blame. But I don’t just want to shout at them from the sidelines, I want to defeat them so we build a fairer country instead.