Andrew Harrop

Dec 8, 2024 | labourlist.org | Andrew Harrop |Ryan Shorthouse

Too many people with mental and physical health problems are not in work. If the Labour Government is to reduce the UK’s unique post-pandemic spike in health-related inactivity, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) now needs to be in mission-mode, not just administration-mode. Reducing economic inactivity was a top priority for the DWP during the previous Conservative government.

Dec 5, 2024 | labourlist.org | Andrew Harrop

Consider these six statements. Our disposable income has increased faster than the cost of livingOur family can access the NHS when we need itOur children are reaching school ready to learnOur neighbourhood is safe and the police are there for usOur electricity is made without harm to the environment or threats from dictatorsOur community has enough homes for the next generationThese are the big ideas baked into the six milestones Labour announced today.

Nov 21, 2024 | cradle2grave.substack.com | Andrew Harrop

This week’s Social Metrics Commission report on poverty made for grim reading. The commission found that a shocking 5.2 million children were in poverty in 2022/23 - 36 per cent of all under-18s. It is a depressing backdrop for the government to be writing its new child poverty strategy which is promised for the Spring. What is disturbing is not just the level of child poverty reported by the SMC but the trend.

Feb 9, 2024 | theneweuropean.co.uk | Andrew Harrop

The launch of new rules on paperwork for EU food and agricultural imports is another disaster for the British economy and another hammer-blow to the UK’s trading ties with Europe. But one group who may be quietly relieved by this are the senior Labour MPs who could well be ministers in a few months’ time. Because the truth is that if this Conservative government does not complete the Brexit implementation, an incoming Labour government would have to do it for them.

Jan 19, 2024 | labourlist.org | Anneliese Dodds |Andrew Harrop

For all of us in the Labour family, 2024 will be a year of constant campaigning. Nothing can be taken for granted. Election victories do not fall into your lap. They are earned through hard graft until the final ballot is cast. Look at what we achieved in 2023: gains across the country in the local elections, overturning huge majorities in by-elections in Selby, Tamworth and Mid Bedfordshire, and taking a seat off the SNP at a by election for the first time ion Rutherglen and Hamilton West.