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Liverpool Echo
Liverpool Echo
National
Remy Greasley

Birkenhead MP says government has 'abandoned hardworking people'

An MP said the government and Boris Johnson have 'abandoned hardworking people' following the Queen's Speech earlier this week.

Mick Whitley, member of parliament for Birkenhead, said the "government has abandoned hardworking people" and had "spurned" the chance to prove it was serious about the cost of living crisis after a lacklustre Queen's Speech. Mr Whitley said the Prime Minister had "turned a deaf ear" to the "millions nationwide who are struggling to heat their homes and put food on the table".

He also called out the lack of a new employment bill that could've seen the rights of workers protected, such as the 800 employees of P&O Ferries who were sacked and replaced with overseas staff on cheaper wages earlier this year. He said government ministers had promised such a bill '20 times' and that the lack of one is "yet another broken promise to working people".

READ MORE: Anger, rows and resignation calls as Liverpool Labour group at war over £16m energy 'catastrophe'

Whitley's comments were not unique. Many other MPs from throughout Merseyside and the Liverpool City Region chimed in with their thoughts and opinions following the speech.

MP for Birkenhead, Mick Whitley (Liverpool Echo)

Alison McGovern, MP for Wirral South, also criticised the Queen's Speech as tone-deaf and failing to address the urgent needs of desperate families across the country. In a debate following the Speech she said: "Sometimes the House of Commons captures so well the emotions, worries and desires of the people we represent, and sometimes it feels as though Parliament is having a day on a whole different planet.

"Today has been a whole different planet kind of day. The glaring and burning injustice of children growing up in poverty and of far too many families simply not being able to make ends meet seems to have been ignored.

MP for Wirral South, Alison McGovern (Roland Leon)

"Politics is not performance art; all the pomp and ceremony in the world will do no good at all for my constituents in Wirral South unless the laws we put forward and vote for in this place [parliament] put money in their pockets." She added: "[People] want action, particularly when it comes to making ends meet.

"So I am at a loss to understand why we are not having an emergency Budget; why there was no employment Bill in the Queen’s Speech, despite promise after promise; and why there is simply no credible plan in that Queen’s Speech to end the need for food banks in our country. We are letting the country down."

McGovern also spoke about New Ferry in her constituency, where there was a terrible gas explosion that shook the local community in 2017. She said: "We were promised help and support to regenerate that area.

"We got far too little, far too late. One of the major problems has been insufficient power and resources for councils to tackle areas of significant dereliction and deprivation."

Social media gave MPs a chance to voice their views on the Queen's Speech in short. Justin Madders, MP for Ellesmere Port & Neston, tweeted during the speech: "No employment bill. Another year of unchecked workplace exploitation."

Paula Barker, MP for Liverpool Wavertree, said in a tweet: "The Queen's speech today was a pitiful effort from the government. Nothing on the cost of living crisis to help millions who are worried how they will survive.

"Promised legislation on improving workers rights and banning section 21 evictions still missing. They are out of ideas."

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