KATE OSBORNE: Ten years of painful austerity is affecting people’s health and well-being

Austerity and poverty are linked says Kate. | JPIMedia

Austerity has been a key feature of Tory Party policy ever since the Conservatives were elected into government along with the Lib Dems back in 2010.

Ten years ago, this government’s wicked austerity cuts made the inequality we see around us painfully obvious, yet despite the massive damage they do to people, old and young, and the services on which they rely, the Tories just keep on going.

Child poverty is a growing problem and recent research indicates that some 4.1 million children across the UK were living in poverty in 2017/2018.

This equates to one in three children, and what’s even more harrowing is that the respected Institute for Fiscal Studies has predicted that the number of children living in poverty across the country will rise to 5.2 million by 2021/22.

Closer to home, in South Tyneside and Gateshead local authority areas, one in three children are living in poverty.

I see what that means in my constituency surgery and in the large number of letters and e-mails that drop through my mailbox every day. Families are being forced to live off foodbanks, paying sky-high rents, and at breaking point, with little hope for a better future.

Callous Tory ideological cuts have squeezed incomes, decimated our public services, hurt communities, and ruined lives.

Ten years of painful austerity is difficult enough, and new research has seen significant effects on people’s health and wellbeing.

Life expectancy has stalled for the first time in more than a century and even reversed for the most deprived women in society, according to a landmark review led by Sir Michael Marmot.

The landmark review shows the gap in health inequalities is growing even wider than it did a decade ago, in large part due to the impact of cuts linked to the government’s wicked austerity policies.

A decade ago, Marmot warned that growing inequalities in society would lead to worse health, which he says is no different to the rest of the UK and could have been prevented.

Labour is determined to build a better future for everybody, leaving nobody behind, and something has to give.

That’s why I became an MP and what I will continue to fight for every single day