Glenis and Ed out campaigning in Nottingham

 

Only two days to go and the Tories are desperately trying to get everybody to stay at home and not vote.  Of course they expect (and deserve) a going over on Thursday, but what worries them is coming third behind UKIP.  We have a special UKIP problem here in the East Midlands, of course.  The top candidate on their list, and thus the only one who stands a chance of getting in, is not going to serve.  He's already campaigning for the parliamentary by-election in the Nottinghamshire seat of disgraced Tory Patrick Mercer - where I understand he got involved with a disabled Labour supporter yesterday.  To round off a poor day for Mr Helmer, his own party leader, interviewed by Paxman on Newsnight, blamed some of Mr H's stronger opinions on him being over 70 and therefore presumably in Farage's opinion ga-ga.

 

 

 

Voting on Thursday is about more than ensuring embarrassment for Cameron and disappointment for Mr Helmer.  It's about standing up for the rights of ordinary people all across Europe - the rights to travel, the rights to be treated fairly at work, the right to live or work abroad if you chose, and the fundamental right to be treated by the elite as a human being whose opinion actually counts.

Labour guarantees

 

Labour will act to deal with the Coalition's cost-of-living crisis.

 

With your support we will:

• Freeze gas and electricity bills until 2017 and reform the energy market to prevent customers being ripped off again in the future
• Expand free childcare to 25 hours for three- and four-year-olds of working parents
• Get 200,000 homes a year built by 2020
• Get the next generation into work with our compulsory jobs guarantee for young people who have been unemployed for a year or more

Read Glenis Willmott on Europe's role in beating the cost-of-living crisis by clicking here.

Housing Benefit - the facts

The number of working people claiming housing benefit has increased by 60 per cent costing taxpayers an extra £6 billion because of David Cameron’s cost-of-living crisis. 

400,000 more working people are claiming housing benefit costing the taxpayer an estimated extra £4.8bn in housing benefit over the course of this Parliament. 

Every single local authority in the UK has seen an increase in the number of people in work claiming housing benefit, the biggest increase in the country was in Croydon which has seen an astonishing 1100 per cent rise since 2010. 

The maths is simple: landlords profiting from ridiculous rents are likely to vote Tory; tenants paying those rents (and going without in other basics to make up the shortfall in benefit) are not.

Labour has pledged to limit rent increases, extend the length of tenancies and stop letting agents charging both landlord and tenants for their so-called services.  The rent-for-profit industry is up in arms.  Yes, in the country which built railways and cars and ships and wove fabric for the world, renting property now counts as an industry.

Euro Launch Leicester

Rory Palmer and Glenis Willmott launch Labour's Euro Election campaign at the Clock Tower in Leicester, Tuesday May 6th 2014.

Every picture tells a story

And this one tells the whole story - of why the Rabid Right (UKIP, Conservatives, and LibDems) hate Europe and why everybody who has or hopes for a job should vote LABOUR on May 22nd.

The Eurosceptic lie

The Eurosceptics claim the UK could be like Norway, which is not a member of the EU but has access to the single market.  What they don't tell you is (a) that Norway is a liberal social welfare state where people pay higher taxes in return for greater social benefits of all kinds, and (b) that in order to get its access, Norway has to obey EU rules and pay into the EU budget.

If the UK did the same we would have to implement the rules with no say of what they are, and continue to pay our dues without a say over how much.  I somehow don't think rabid anti-European Tory backbenchers would be keen on that arrangement!

Campaigning 4 Europe

The Labour Euro Team campaigning in the centre of Nottingham.

Rent caps will help limit the housing benefit bill

Rent caps will help limit the housing benefit bill

Click on the above link for more on yesterday's announcement of Labour's rent cap - from Lambeth Council cabinet member Sally Prentice.

Helping Generation Rent - a new pledge from Labour

The up-coming elections see Labour setting out plans to deal with the cost-of-living crisis. The message is simple: Hardworking Britain will always be better off with Labour.

David Cameron can’t solve the crisis because he stands up for a privileged few not working people.  The Liberal Democrats are part of the problem not part of the solution.

 

Take for example the spiralling costs of private rented accommodation which are draining welfare budgets, increasing homelessness and preventing an entire generation from saving enough money to get themselves on the housing ladder.

 

Generation rent is a generation that has been ignored for too long. Ed Miliband has today set about putting that right, with Labour’s fair deal for rented housing in Britain.  Labour will bring back long-term tenancies and stable rents so that people can settle down, know where their kids will go to school, know their home will still be there for them tomorrow.

 

That's the pledge.  Here are the facts:

• The costs of renting are part of the cost-of-living crisis: Renters are now paying on average £1020 a year more in rent than in 2010 and letting agents charge average fees of £350 every time someone moves house.
• The private rented sector has changed: 9 million people now rent privately including over 1.3 million families with children and almost 50% of private rented households are over the age of 35.
• The sector doesn’t work for these families: Under the current legislation renters are locked into short term tenancies with only 6 months of security and half of all families renting say that they are worried about unaffordable rent increases.
• Labour will act: We will introduce legislation to make 3 year tenancies with stable rents the norm in the market and to ban letting agents’ fees for tenants, saving families £350.