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

No the questions are about women’s issues.
Calling woman’s issues trans issues just proves that there is a conflict.

What will Labour do to ensure we are never in the dire state regarding energy and mortgages that we’re in now? I am a single, working mother and having to tell my children that it’s going to be a very cold winter and to get used to wrapping up extremely warm rather than using the heating.

I have also told them that I can only afford a very small and cheap Christmas this year. I have not shared that we may lose our home.

Can anything be done?

Bridget: The Blunkett report calls for a lot of changes to education. Teachers are quitting in droves, and there's a recruitment crisis. Won't more change just make the problem worse?

Keir you say men are women if they say so, what else are you willing to lie about? and are you not worried that voters will question your intelligence and judgement?

My question is for Keir Starmer, and I asked the same question of Ed Milliband a million years ago on a MN webchat. He didn't answer me, but apparently took the question away with him to reply later. Hmm.

All over the country there are grassroots activists who have devoted large chunks of their lives to supporting the Labour Party. These people are out there, and I'm touch with their local communities in a way the suited and booted career politicians never have been and never will be.

Do you think it's time Labour looked to these people for its parliamentary candidates instead of flying people in with no connection and no emotional ties to the community and therefore little grassroot support?

My home constituency is Ashfield. Gloria de Piero was sent in. Apart from a half arsed attempt to be part of Angela Eagle's coup left without a trace and now we've got Lee Anderson. So cheers for that Gloria!

What are your plans for healthcare? How will you address the longer than ever waiting lists after Covid and the chronic shortage of healthcare staff and the chronic understanding of the NHS over the past 12 years?

Apart from that, what everyone else here said...

*underfunding

How will you uphold the right of female humans to have single sex spaces (toilets, changing rooms, prisons, refuges, rape crisis, hospital wards etc.) while simultaneously proposing legislation that will allow any male human to gain legal recognition as female through statutory declaration?

For clarity the terms female human and male human refer to women/girls and men/boys respectively. Sex relates to the complimentary reproductive roles of these two types of bodies; females with disorders of sexual development being female and males with disorders of sexual development being male.

What are your top 3 priorities for Education and why?

If elected what will a Labour government do to reduce the inequalities of wealth in our country? The gap between rich and poor grew under the last Labour government, and subsequent Tory administrations, are you committed to the redistribution of wealth?

Why are you alienating 51% of the population for the feelings of 0.01% of ‘women’? The 0.01% quote is taken from your recent interview on LBC where you dodged the question from Vicky.

I’m a floating voter in both national and local elections. I cannot bring myself to vote Conservative in the next GE due to the current shit show, however, there is no way I can bring myself to vote Labour either when you and your party are so anti Women’s Rights.

I’m not anti trans and believe that people should be able to live their lives in whichever gender they feel most comfortable with.

I am pro women’s rights though and believe in sex segregation in certain circumstances - toilets, hospitals, changing rooms, sports etc.

Oh, this is interesting because Bridget was on Good Morning Britain this morning claiming that tax on private school fees would raise £1.7 billion which seems very close to the claim in this report that says that figure assumes that there would be no parents who would have to remove their child from private education as a result of fees increasing.

I would be very concerned if that assumption were being made, particularly if it were based on a report in 2011 and not taking into account the current cost of living crisis which is squeezing everyone's finances.

Evening, everyone - thanks so much for your questions so far.

We'll certainly convey the strength of feeling on self-ID - but we know that MNers
have a wide range of issues they'd like addressed in the current political climate and we'll remove posts if there's lots of repetition. Thank you.

Indeed - and it's a predominantly female site, so who'da thunk it?

I have two teenage daughters who are growing up in a porn soaked, woman hating world, by the time they reach adulthood they will have been objectified thousands of times and likely sexually assaulted.l (rape is a consequence free crime in our country). Boys are watching violent porn that is dehumanising women by assaulting them and choking them. These boys, as young as 12, are growing up thinking this is normal. These boys will grow up to be men. How will you protect the rights of women and girls so that our society does not decay to the point of a dystopian novel?

My question is - what would the labour party actually do, and where is your fiscal plan to do it. Come on and show people some evidence that you have got it in you to do something concrete, all costed out.

Wow.

From my research, Bridget hasn't worked in a school setting. With that in mind, I'd love to know how much involvement she has with teachers to understand what is really happening in schools and how she can truly help them?

Is Scottish independence inevitable now?

This.
You've lost me forever. I hate that labour policies re sex based rights have left me politically homeless and, effectively, unable to vote.
You should be ashamed of yourselves.

Do you ever read mumsnet, do you realise women have the same number of votes as men, one each.

Echo all of the above re self-ID and single sex spaces.

Also, what will the Labour Party do to reform the dire state of the CMS and ensure that children are not growing up in poverty because of parents who will not contribute to their upkeep (or contribute unreliably or in amounts so miniscule as to be meaningless).

Also, why has Labour never had a female leader?

My question is for Bridget

1/How will you be tackling the retention and recruitment crisis in teaching?

2/And given that the new report seems to be driving towards yet another huge change in education and that work will obviously be past on to the teachers to solve and implement. How will you be expecting teachers to manage this work load?

And please don't say this will be for individual schools as this circles back in to recruitment and retention.

will you bring back youth workers, youth clubs and sure start, all of which are invaluable in reducing crime and enabling children to have a secure childhood.
Re education, will you persue craft and skills based education for non academic children
What will you do to ensure CMS chases maintenance payments. Will you follow the US system of jailing payment avoiders.

Would Labour be willing to re-enter the Single Market (at least), given the devastating impact Brexit has had on the economy?