Got a question for Keir Starmer or Bridget Phillipson?

[RhiannonEMumsnet]

Hi all,

We’re pleased to tell you that later this week Justine will be sitting down with Leader of the Opposition Keir Starmer and Shadow Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson to ask them Mumsnet users’ questions.

If you have a question you'd like answering, you can post it below. Please stick to the usual guidelines - one question per user, keep it civil, and if one topic is dominating, please don't continue to post what's effectively the same question or point (we'll be deleting questions that are repeated multiple times). We'll be quite limited for time so do keep questions as short as possible so that we’re able to ask more of them - as always, we'll try to make sure we cover the topics that we know are important to Mumsnet users.

We'll be closing this thread at 5pm on Thursday, so please do get your questions in before that - and watch this space to hear the responses. If you'd like a reminder of the format you can see our interview with Boris Johnson here.

Thanks,
MNHQ

Keir. What specific steps will you take to modernise the Gender Recognition Act and how high a priority will it be for you if you become PM?

Why does Labour think male feelings are more important than female safety when it comes to prisons, rape crisis centres, hospitals etc.

Under Labour will o have the right to ask for intimate care to be provided by females only.

Keir, do you believe that humans can change sex?

What is a woman?

Thanks for voicing the reasons that are stopping me from voting Labour. I cannot vote for a party who cannot protect women and girls rights when they are unable to even define what a woman is.

I cannot vote for my child and many other children to lose their school place ( we, along with many many others would not be able to afford the increase in fees and are already paying tax towards the state system for a place that we are not using) and struggle to find a place in the already over stretched state system making the schooling situation worse for many.

The questions I would like to know the answer to regarding why Labour is in thrall to the trans rights activists disregarding the rights of 51% of the voter pool have already been asked so I will go with the following:

It is now clear that Brexit was bad for the country. Will Labour consider rejoining the EU or EEA or will it continue to implement this act of national self-harm?

It's extremely worrying that given the state this country is in, the majority of these 'questions' are about trans issues.

Can you provide detailed calculations of the estimated additional tax revenue generated from the proposal to add VAT to private school fees, taking into account pupil drop out from the private system and the impact of that on the state system. I refer you to the ISC report on the subject:
www.isc.co.uk/media/5926/isc-vat-full-report-1018-for-circulation.pdf

What is your response to their findings?

It tells you that many many women are worried about their rights to single sex spaces. It is a very important issue.

Yes. Silly women. We should just shut up, eh?

That's fine but I'm questioning the proportionality of the response. Literally look around you, every time you leave your house, shop, use a road, hospital, school. It's appalling

Any comments on the Al Jazeera exposé, or the Forde Report?

I was a Labour Party member. What the infiltrators, including you, did to Jeremy Corbyn is unforgivable. You will never get my vote.

How specifically do you plan to uphold (and strengthen) the protections provided for women under the Equality Act, at the same time as reforming the GRA? Do you envisage any conflict between the two and how do you plan to navigate that?

I know you are probably sick of the question, but we will need to know your definition of women when you answer this question so readers can understand your answer. To be clear we need to understand when you talk about women whether you include biological males who identify as women

Hey MNHQ,
I take your point about questions being repeated but I hope that you will convey to Keir and Bridget the overwhelming message from XX women, about the erosion of our hard won rights by a vocal minority and those who listen only to them.

No one is talking about trans issues.
We are talking about the erosion of women's rights.

Hi. I am an educational psychologist in a city outside London. Anecdotal evidence and research evidence shows that covid disproportionately impacted the most vulnerable children, including children with SEND and other vulnerabilities such as poverty. In my city, teachers report children who are presenting with lower resilience, more limited attention and concentration, and in younger children significant issues in social communication, language development and "school readiness", even now a full year after schools resumed relative normality. As an Ed psych I am concerned that the government's approach this far has been minor adjustments to exam expectations. There has been no alteration to the curriculum, no chance for youngsters, especially those who missed out on Early Years opportunities, to develop these root skills of play; sharing, negotiating, turn taking, paying attention all of which are fundamental precursors to school and life success. It's not fair on schools and it's not fair on the children.

What would labour education policy be in relation to understanding the fundamental prerequisites for educational success in the covid cohorts?

Incidentally, referrals to Camhs and to neurodiversity pathways bear out this worrying phenomenon of how seriously and significantly covid has impacted the vulnerable. Our local ND pathway has had at least a quadrupling of referrals post covid. (And they worked throughout, so this isn't catch-up after a fall back).

The U.K. has a politically progressive majority electorate, but we keep getting Tory governments because of FPTP. Will Labour work with other progressive parties to introduce proportional representation for parliamentary elections?

Will you reinstate Sure Start, EMA and Remploy? If not, how will you help the 'left behind'?

You lost the Red Wall at the last election. Have you now become another party courting the South and the Middle Classes? How do you plan to improve lives for the most vulnerable, marginalised and disaffected ? Explain to me where socialism has gone and what makes Labour discernably different from the Tories.

Kier Starmer weaseled out of the questions about women and girls needing single sex provision last time he was on here . It will be interesting to see what he says now.
Did he comment on the issue of crime data being skewed if not recorded by sex ? I can’t remember.

Well I (and I suspect a lot/the majority of women on MN) are broadly in line with the LP on most things, but this is a sticking point. Hence the abundance of questions about it. For me, formerly a card carrying LP member, their stance on self ID and the silencing of feminists over it is one of the very few- but major-drawbacks of voting for them.

I would also like to know more about what a Labour government would do about climate change?

Safeguarding, anyone?