Gareth Snell Labour and Co-operative Candidate for Stoke-on-Trent Central
After a long week in Westminster – I often catch up with the local papers when I get back to Stoke-on-Trent.
This morning I was struck by the words of local politicians to the hardship report that I raised with the Prime Minister this week in PMQs.
It’s hard to reconcile the words of Stoke-on-Trent’s Conservative MP with the last nine years of government austerity. I wonder if he is just ignoring the desperate situation so many of his constituents are in.
My calendar is full of appointments visiting and thanking food bank volunteers, surgery appointments with people losing the most basic government support and people showing me growing utility and childcare bills that after years of wage stagnation means their pay is barely covering their bills.
My weekend will be spent reading through the letters and emails of local hardworking people barely making ends meet.
That’s the reality of nine years of austerity.