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Broken Britain – Speech @ People’s Assembly Demonstration

Today from all walks of life we are here to send a message to the Tory government that Enough is Enough!

The Tory narrative that austerity is the answer for overspending has crumbled in front of our very eyes. Their austerity is by political will and with political will, it can and It will be stopped.

Today we have a broken Britain where:

Companies can continue with Fat Cat Friday, bonuses whilst the many are struggling with precarious work, zero hour contracts and no real living wage.

A broken Britain where:

The disabled are declared fit to work or are sanctioned under the brutal Universal Credit system.

A broken Britain where:

Walking in the streets of our home towns, we see more and more people homeless and sleeping rough and queueing at foodbanks.

Only last month whilst the Tories and the Right wing media were more focused on what Jeremy Corbyn called the Tories, a homeless man Gulya Remes died after being found sleeping outside of Parliament.

We are living in broken Britain where:

There is money to revamp Buckingham Palace but there are still no homes to house those who survived the tragedy of Grenfell.

And a broken Britain where:

MPs can get away with blatant Islamophobia, comparing Muslim women to letterboxes and inspiring far-right activists to take to the streets.

The Tories don’t believe that we have More in Common.

They believe in putting our children last, through the academisation of schools.

They believe in putting our elderly and vulnerable last, through the backdoor privatisation of our NHS.

Today, our message to the Tory government is this:

We are fed up of you telling is that austerity is necessary.

Austerity is a political choice that you, the Few, have made, not the Many.

I come from the East End where there is a proud working class tradition of history of standing up for our rights, and welcoming immigrants to be a part of our diverse community.

The East End is where women led the suffragette movement and in the 1920s where George Lansbury led the Poplar Rates Rebellion.

Today it is also the place where we are seeing the most dense concentration of planning and development in entire Europe particularly through foreign investment and Canary Wharf the financial hub of the capital.

All this accumulation of wealth, against the backdrop of the highest child poverty rates in the entire country.

East Enders stand proudly with you all today.

There is hope in this broken Britain.

Workers fed up are joining trade unions. Striking and demanding better pay and conditions.

If you haven’t joined at TU join one now!

This week, five brave single mothers won a case against the government on the way that their Universal Credit is being calculated leaving them without enough to feed their children.

There growing grassroots movement taking on Tory austerity.

Momentum where I am a National Committee member for London &, South East has a membership of 40,000 and growing. We are taking our message to constituencies across the country to Unseat Tories who are letting us down.

There is hope in broken Britain. We all are that hope.

We must work to spread the message in all our cities until we get the General Election we desperately need and form a Labour government that will support our vulnerable, our elderly, our ethnic minorities, our single mothers.