A row has erupted after the opposition leader on Salford council called for the "cycle of single young women and girls in the city becoming pregnant" to be broken. Leader of the Conservative group, Robin Garrido, made the comments at a full council meeting where a progress report on the initiative Tackling Inequalities: The Salford Way was delivered.
The report by Councillor Sharmina August sets out how the authority is "building a fairer, greener and healthier city" since it was launched in March last year. It aims to prevent people from falling into poverty, provides targeted support for people already struggling and is pushing for long-term change in Government policies and practice.
However, there was a storm of protest at comments made by Coun Garrido, responding to Coun August's report. He said: "How can we break the cycle of [single] young women or girls becoming pregnant and having babies? How can we introduce respect and responsibility into that cycle?"
Coun Garrido also mentioned the culture of unemployment affecting families down the generations. "There are families who have suffered unemployment over a long period of time and it becomes the norm, we need also to break that cycle."
Coun August responded saying: "I get increasingly frustrated about the focus being on single parents. What about all the children abandoned by Boris Johnson?" And she blasted the government's abandonment of the Sure Start programme which spawned the career of Deputy Labour Leader Angela Rayner. She said the loss of the programme diminished opportunities for parents in disadvantaged areas.
Across the chamber to Coun Garrido, she said: "If you want to support people, write to the Government and ask them to support schemes like Sure Start and reverse austerity." Coun Roseanna Wain echoed her comments and said it was "misogynistic to talk about single parents".
Coun Garrido also came under fire from Salford City Mayor Paul Dennett for criticising The Salford Way report for not using the word "deprivation". The Tory leader had said: "I am disappointed that the word deprivation hasn't been mentioned in the report.
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"I feel this is something worth saying as Salford has one of the highest rates of deprivation in the country. I think it's important that we recognise that fact." Mr Dennett fired back: "I'm not going to get caught up in semantics and an infatuation with language. This is not about language use or rhetoric. This is about tackling poverty and inequality in this city."
Speaking after the meeting Coun Garrido said he was "not against" single young mums, but said they "needed support" so that the cycle could be broken.
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