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

Bridget - The Tory Government's cuts to local authorities over the last 12 years has meant scandalous cuts to children's social care. Hundreds of millions have been cut from early intervention in particular - which is crazy because we know that early intervention prevents bigger issues down the line. Politicians rarely talk about children's social care - but please can you tell us what you plan to do about this? It's not just Sure Start (although that's important) so please don't just talk about that.

My question is about pornography.

Making pornography involves women held hostage, drugged, raped and abused. Meanwhile virtually unrestricted access to pornography has led many young people to hold worrying expectations about sex with little understanding of healthy relationships.

What will the Labour Party do to stop production and distribution of pornography in this country? How will it take action to bring all of those responsible to court, and ensure prison sentences are adequate in view of the serious harm these people have caused?

What will the Labour Party do at the earliest possibility to ensure no minor can access pornographic material? To ensure that sanctions are serious enough for distributors of porn to take seriously the need to block minor access. And in the longer term what will the Labour Party do to eradicate this industry all together?

Please respect that there are other issues of importance and stop asking the same question.

People aren't asking the same question. They are asking different questions related to women's and children's rights. There isn't just one question that needs to be answered - there are multiple issues that need to be addressed. Asking about women's rights in prison is not the same as asking about who delivers healthcare and that is not the same as asking about gender ideology in schools and that is not the same as asking about the treatment of female politicians who talk about women's rights. They are different questions!

we'll delete endless repetitive questions

Why censor women who are concerned about women's rights? Yes, if there are two identical questions, maybe only one of them needs to be there. But isn't it also information for KS if several people have the same question?

But as I say, there are lots of questions about women's and children's rights. If you're saying they're all the same, how are you going to distill them down into one question that covers everything?

Another voice really disappointed by what feels like a baffling refusal to admit that self id is very problematic for women, especially some of the most vulnerable women:
Muslim and other women who follow restrictive religions
Women who have been assaulted by men
Women in prison
Not to mention the many women who fall into more than one of these categories

I voted for you for leader Keir because you were the only candidate not loudly declaring TWAW, and now it seems you too have been suckered into a harmful and regressive ideology

I will respect you so much more if you engage with this topic properly and read the room and the way the tide is turning.

Other than this issue my number 1 is climate change so I'd like to know how ambitious you're willing to be, at home and influencing abroad, to get our collective carbon emissions down. Time is fast running out and there us a good chance you'll be PM during some really pivotal years for the future of our planet.

Thank you, Justine, for this thread and creating the chance to interview Keir and Bridget

I would like you to tell Keir how the site you set up has resulted in the biggest gathering of women in history. How many unique users mumsnet has per month, as I believe it's between 10 and 12 million. And also how popular the feminist board is and how the views there have come to be reflected in the rest of the site.

And how that situation evolved over time as more and more women drilled down into the effect trans ideology has on their rights, but also those of their children.

Because this is a parenting website and the women here will tell you that the ideology is negatively impacting their children at a rate of knots.

Feminists are largely left wing. There are a massive number of left wing voters posting here. Or reading here, or lurking, getting informed.

i would like Keir to appreciate the real, actual numbers of votes he's losing due to his refusal to listen to the women/mothers using or reading this site.

Women are really frightened, Keir.

💯

But you're not deleting them Justine.

Just another MN thread completely dominated by one issue, as I knew it would be when I opened it. I imagine many other posters feel similarly and haven't even bothered to open the thread. So bloody sick of it, if anything ever gets me off this place it won't be a desire to waste less time, it will be this.

The "Jacob Rees- Mogg" retained EU law (revocation and reform) Bill currently going through parliament could result in existing laws built up over 47 years of EU membership being taken away (including laws protecting workers rights, the environment, pension rights for same sex married couples, food standards and aviation safety rules - and easily replaced with new rules with no consultation with those affected, and with only a yes/no vote in parliament after a short debate. Under it the Courts are nudged to ignore relevant case law of the European court of justice.

How effectively has Labour communicated this to the public?
What is the Labour response?

Seriously? 'Lots of repetition'? Can you not see what that means? Ffs.

Yes to this. Plus there was repetition in the last interview to the PM not threatened with deletion.

I agree 100% @JenniferBarkley - the point's been made, the question will be asked. There are so many things to ask the (very likely) next Prime Minister of this country about that he won't be asked in other places. Please, let's ask them here.

My question is about renewable energy.

we had seen an increase of solar panels on rooftops in our town, but obviously since last summer the numbers are increasing. However looking into it for our family, adding solar panels and batteries would cost us around £20k. On current prices and our household usage, they’d have paid for themselves in around 8 years (and we plan to be in this house for considerably longer than that), but we don’t have a spare £20k, so longer term we will spend more on our energy and use less environmentally friendly means to power our home. (The Vine’s Boots of energy.)

What will a Labour government do to make sure “being green” isn’t just for the wealthy?

Keir won't be reading this thread. Justine will be choosing the questions to ask from here.

Ask your question. She can choose it.

No one is stopping you. Ask away.

Surely you are free to ask the question you want? Nobody is stopping you.

I did.

Why do you think it would be beneficial to displace a lot of happy privately educated children into state schools, which are already under huge amounts of pressure, by increasing the fees with additional vat ?

I fully support the questions on free school meals, childcare costs and how much childcare workers are paid, and all of those calling for better funding for schools overall, for the staff and teachers as well. We absolutely need to do better for working families, schools and childcare providers.

My question is this: What is Labour's priority to deliver in the first 100 days in office after the next election, and what is Sir Kier's measure of success for the first 12 months in office should the labour party win the next election?

A brief apology. Not only did I spell his surname wrongly, I also managed to misspell his first name too.

Sorry Sir Keir

Why in the world would you delete questions about women's rights and safety? You get to choose which questions are asked, but deleting questions is just an attempt to silence and diminish the issue. Mumsnet ought to be a place where we aren't censored about women's rights.

I would like to ask if Labour has any plans to improve the situation for unpaid carers, who are largely ignored by all political parties.

My question is about prison service reform.

The inevitable consequence of allowing self-Id is that there will be a large increase in the women’s prison population, in particular of violent criminals. It has been noted that there are a lot of males in Scottish prisons that are transitioning themselves over to women’s prisons.

The women’s prison service is not set up to deal with violent males. What plans does the Labour Party have to change women’s prisons, so they can cope with the impact of changing to self-Id? I think we will need to create new higher-category prisons for ‘women’ that have committed violent and sexual crimes. How will this be funded?

Do you understand the crisis in recruitment in support staff in Education? The wages are an insult. What will you actually do about this? (And please don't change the curriculum, teachers don't have the capacity right now).

Keir, I am not a Labour voter (and no point being so for me in our broken electoral system) but I truly believe you are a good and honourable man and will be delighted if you are the next PM.

The Labour Party’s 2019 manifesto stated that the academy system was “over-centralised, inefficient and undemocratic” and promised to “end the fragmentation and marketisation of our school system by bringing free schools and academies back under control of the people who know them best – parents, teachers and local communities”

Would you stand by this and stop our education system being made into business to create wealth for some top executives rather than to educate children?

Instead of adding more to an overstretched curriculum, especially in Primary, would you focus on the needs of children first and foremost, put money into schools to try to properly catch up lost learning from Covid and give children time for learning emotional and social skills?

Will you give teachers the respect (and wages!) we deserve?

Sir Keir - will you allow a second Scottish referendum?

What plans do you have to improve the lives of disabled people? Currently the PIP assessment isn't fit for purpose, I have a degenerative illness, therefore making me apply every 3 years for the benefit is a waste of time and money. In addition will disabled people and their families be better financially supported, a great example is the Christmas bonus, which has remained at £10 since the 70s!

Families with disabled members are struggling on a daily basis and without the care given by families many more disabled people would die.