Column: Politically Speaking with Yvette Cooper MP: ​Local groups are doing an amazing job

​In Knottingley the Addy has been supporting hundreds of children each day over the summer holidays – it might have been wet and muddy but the kids didn’t care and were still queuing up to toast bread and marshmallows when I dropped by last week. Pontefract Reads have been holding story sessions, and Yorkshire Day in Pontefract Valley Gardens was a great success despite the drizzle. Meanwhile the Hut in Airedale, Young People’s Empowerment Project at Queens Mill in Castleford, Normanton’s Well project and many more are running different activities, crafts, and games all summer.

With the weather conspiring against picnics, walks and trips to the coast, the activities being put on locally are more important than ever. So I’ve put a guide together of all the summer groups activities and events and the support available for families in the holidays because I know what a lifeline they are for parents. A huge thank you to all the amazing staff and volunteers who are pulling out the stops to give our kids a good summer.

But the cost of living crisis is making it even harder for families this year. Everyone has already been hit by soaring prices and energy bills, but now mortgages and rents have been going up too as things have got even worse since the Tories crashed the economy with their disastrous mini-budget last autumn. 12,000 households in the Five Towns are being hit by big increases in their mortgages – for many it’s as much as £2,000 more a year.

Most people tell me they now feel much worse off than they did 13 years ago when the Tories came into Government, and it’s just not fair that hard working people in our towns are having to pay the price for their failure. That’s why Labour is calling for a proper windfall tax on the oil and gas companies who are making massive unfair excess profits so that money can be used to help families in Yorkshire and across the country. I also want to see more support for those affected by rising mortgages, and Labour are calling on the government to bring in new requirements on lenders to help those who are really struggling with payments.

Locally everyone has been working to support each other. Wakefield Council is running the Happy Healthy Holidays scheme, so many of the activities at the Addy, the Well and elsewhere include free lunches for children too. Local food banks are still taking donations and we’re also still running our community books schemes, which I set up during the pandemic because I was worried that children weren’t able to get books from school or libraries. If you would like free books for your children (or you have books your kids have grown out of that you want to donate) please get in touch.

When Tory Ministers tell everyone to “hold their nerve” when people are running up debts and the pressure is pulling families apart, it just shows how out of touch they are. Here in our coalfield communities we have a strong tradition of supporting each other, but we need a Government that is on our side rather than always letting us down.