Up to 907 children living in poverty across Bury will have their lunches taken away under Theresa May’s plans to abolish universal free school lunches for infants, Liberal Democrat research has revealed. In total 6,255 children in Bury are set to lose out under the plans.

Those families losing out are expected to have to pay around £440 per child per year for their school lunches.

The Liberal Democrats have also calculated that under Conservative costings of just under 7p per child’s breakfast.

Commenting on the figures, Bury South Parliamentary Candidate Andrew Page said:

“This will mean greater inequality and struggling families having to pay hundreds of pounds on lunches a year.

“The Conservatives’ promise of a free breakfast is cynical and clearly not designed to reach all children. They have set aside a meagre 7p per breakfast per child, the price of half a boiled egg or just one slice of bread with 12 baked beans.

“The Liberal Democrats will stand up against this mean-spirited vision of Britain and extend free school lunches to all primary school children.”

During the Coalition, the Liberal Democrats introduced universal infant free school meals for all pupils in reception, year one and year two. Prior to that, when free lunches were means-tested, the Children’s Society estimated that half of all school aged children living in poverty – 1.2 million – were not accessing free school meals In total, more than 1.7 million children will lose out on a free lunch under the Conservatives’ plans.

Aisling Kirwan, founder of the Grub Club, claims that a nutritious breakfast costs at least 25p per pupil on average, though this only provides porridge with milk. A more filling portion costs 85p.

The Liberal Democrats have announced they would plug funding gaps for the NHS and social care by putting a penny on income tax, in their first major manifesto commitment of the election campaign.

The tax would raise an additional £21.6 million for Bury, with £14 million for the NHS and £7.6 million for social care each year.

This is the party’s flagship spending commitment and its first major policy announcement for the election. The Liberal Democrats manifesto will also set out a ‘five-point recovery plan’ for NHS and social care services in their manifesto.

At least 70% of Brits would happily pay an extra 1p in every pound if that money was guaranteed to go to the NHS, an ITV poll found last October.

Liberal Democrat parliamentary Candidate for Bury South, Andrew Page, said:

“Right now in Greater Manchester we are seeing patients lying on trolleys in hospital corridors, urgent operations being cancelled and the elderly being denied the care they need.

“The Liberal Democrats are prepared to be honest with people and say that to secure the future of the NHS we will all need to chip in a little more.

“A penny in the pound would allow us to invest in improving local NHS services and ensuring the elderly receive the care they deserve.

“This Conservative government has left our health and care services chronically underfunded – and while the crisis gets worse they just don’t seem to care.

“We cannot continue asking the system to deliver more and more, without giving it the resources to do so.”

Liberal Democrat Health Spokesperson and former health minister Norman Lamb said:

“The NHS was once the envy of the world and this pledge is the first step in restoring it to where it should be.

“A penny in the pound to save the NHS is money well spent in our view.

“But simply providing more money on its own is not enough and that’s why this is just the first step in our plan to protect health and care services in the long-term.”

More information:

The Liberal Democrats manifesto will set out a ‘five-point recovery plan’ for NHS and social care services. This will include a 1% rise on the basic, higher, additional and dividend rates of income tax in the next financial year raising around £6bn per year, which will be ringfenced to be spent on NHS and care services and public health.

A regional breakdown of how the £6bn would be distributed, based on current funding allocations for both the NHS and social care, can be found here

The Liberal Democrats are first off the starting block to announce both their candidates for the General Election on 8 June 2017.

Across the country the Party had candidates in place should the Prime Minister call a ‘snap’ General Election, while other parties are still choosing candidates.

(Richard Baum left, Andrew Page right)

In Bury North, former Councillor Richard Baum has been chosen as our candidate. Richard, who works for the NHS and is a Magistrate,  was a Bury Councillor from 2007 to 2011 and contested Bury North in 2015

In Bury South, our candidate will be Andrew Page, a photographer working across the North West who has previously worked in the NHS for 16 years and has been particularly involved in campaigning on health issues.

Jane Brophy, Lib Dems GM Mayoral Candidate, has uncovered astonishing figures about the GMP’s ability to investigate crime in Greater Manchester.

The force failed to follow up almost half (45%) of all crimes reported in 2016. A whopping 57% of burglaries were not investigated, along with more than three quarters of pickpocketing and street thefts.

70% of bicycle thefts were also not followed up.

Jane obtained the figures via a Freedom of Information (FoI) request. She commented:

Visible policing has all but disappeared apart from Manchester city centre and our town centres, leaving many communities feeling unsafe. If I become Mayor I will work to ensure frontline policing is improved to restore people’s faith in the police.

The elected Greater Manchester Mayor will take on the functions of the current interim Mayor and GM Police & Crime Commissioner, former Labour MP Tony Lloyd. This entails setting priorities for GMP in how they tackle crime.

Jane Brophy highlighted the fact that figures for the current year show that 42% of all recorded crimes for the first few months of 2017 were not investigated, greater than the percentage in 2014.

Jane says:

Overall Greater Manchester Police are doing a good job at tackling serious crime, but there seems to be widespread failure to record and investigate all crimes properly.

As Mayor, Jane will be responsible for setting GMP’s crime priorities, as well as working with GMP on successful preventative approaches to reducing crime by working with local communities.