Robust and Responsible Opposition from Labour

Reacting to the Queen’s Speech today Welsh Labour said that no punches would be pulled in examining the proposals and record of the new ConDem coalition government.

Chris Evans, Labour’s MP for Islwyn, said that the party would not oppose the Tories and Lib Dems for the sake of it, but where there were issues of public concern Labour would be both robust and responsible in their approach.

Speaking from Westminster, Mr Evans said,

“Whilst people rightly expect politicians to work together on some issues, responsible opposition requires us to hold the new Government fully to account. And the coalition has got off to a bad start in my eyes – not only axing the Child Trust Fund and Future Jobs Fund, programmes that benefit low income families, but they also chose to make the announcements to the press and not to Parliament. That is not acceptable.

“On political reform, Labour wants to work with other parties to restore trust in the system – but that will not be done by introducing a 55% rule that would allow this Government to continue even after it lost the confidence of a majority of MPs. That is not democratic, that is not the new politics people want to see.

“We also know that the economic recovery has not yet been secured. Damaging cuts that will destabilise our economy will be strongly opposed by Labour. We recognise that there is a huge difference between cutting waste and cutting opportunities for young people and there has been too much of the latter from this Government during their first days in power.”