Covid-19: Children

Lord Coaker Excerpts

Thursday 17th June 2021 Lords Chamber

[Lord Coaker (Lab)]

My Lords, it is a pleasure to speak in this debate. I congratulate my noble friend Lady Morris on her wonderful, heartfelt speech. We know that she actually means it, which gives it greater power. I also wish her a happy birthday. As she knows, we never forget each other’s birthday; it is my birthday as well, so we have no excuse. I am new to this place, so I hope it is in order to say that she and I spoke before the debate. I was mesmerised by the number of reports, plans and statistics that there were on this issue, which is a crucial one to us all. I wondered if I should write all these statistics down or just try and tell a meaningful story about them. She and I thought that the Minister would have all the statistics. We can argue about this or that but, at the end of the day, everybody in this Chamber and beyond is motivated by the fact that the pandemic has shown, starkly, that the level of inequality and poverty in this country is simply unacceptable, whatever the reason for it. We have to find a way of dealing with it and doing something about it.

It was quite a number of years ago that I was teaching but I remember, unfortunately, that the poverty in some schools and families was a disgrace then. It is a failure on the part of all of us—including me—that, if I went back to some of those areas, some of those same people, families and schools would be dealing with the very same deprivation and poverty now. That just cannot be right. This is such a brilliant debate to have, because the challenge to all of us is: how is it going to be different in the future? If the pandemic is anything, is it not a wake-up call to all of us—not only in this country—that we need to do better? I am sick of it, frankly. When I go to some communities, I do not know how some of these children cope. I do not know how they deal with the level of poverty. We all know the brilliant work done by food banks, including in my former constituency, and I do not decry what they do, but the ever-increasing reliance on charity and food banks cannot be right.

We all want the recovery plan to succeed. What is in it that will make it work in a way that many policy initiatives in the past have not? Previous Governments of all colours have set out to deal with poverty, educational underachievement, recruitment of more teachers, housing, food poverty, health inequality and mental health issues. In wishing the recovery plan well, the real question that should ring out from this debate, from this Chamber and from the Minister is: why will it work this time? My own view, which not everyone will agree with, is this: there are obviously issues of funding but if the pandemic has shown one thing it is the power of the state, at both a national and a local level, harnessing the power of the community. When it is clear in what it seeks to do and is properly funded, it can make the difference that we all want.

I will put my speech down; I did not use it. I hope I have done justice to the conversation I had with my noble friend earlier. The figures mean everything, but they mean nothing. Why is this going to make a difference to the children of this country? When I speak on my birthday in 2041—I hope—I want to be able to look back and say that this was the debate that made a difference to this country, and its children, both now and in the future.