Jonathan Brash
Jonathan Brash
3 days ago
Opinion

Ignore What They Say; It’s What They Do That Counts

There’s a lot of noise in politics right now, particularly from the Reform Party and their social media fake accounts and bots. However, what deserves more attention is what they are actually doing.

Jonathan Brash MP with Marcus Newing, Headteacher at St Helen's Primary, one of the Hartlepool schools rolling our Labour's FREE breakfast clubs that will save parents up to £450 a year per child.

All politicians, including myself, should be judged by what they do for people. When it comes to the Reform Party, the results are troubling. Let’s examine the evidence.

Since being elected, I have taken pride in voting to support British workers, and some of our achievements truly stand out. Under a new law, women and their partners who suffer a miscarriage are now entitled to two weeks of bereavement leave. This is a matter that has personally impacted my family, and it represents an important step forward. Yet, remarkably, both the Reform Party and the Conservatives voted against it!

But that’s not all. We are also banning exploitative zero-hour contracts, ending the practice of fire and rehire, providing employees with greater protection against unfair dismissal, improving pay and conditions for school support staff, establishing fair pay agreements for social care workers, increasing protections for pregnant women, and strengthening paternity leave. All these measures were opposed by the Reform and Conservative Parties.

It gets worse: they also opposed protections against sexual harassment in the workplace, dismissing such behaviour as mere 'banter', and resisted efforts to close the gender pay gap.

A pattern emerges: opposition to bereavement rights for women suffering miscarriages, resistance to protections against sexual harassment, and a reluctance to enhance maternity rights. What is it about supporting women in the workplace that the Reform Party and the Conservatives seem to oppose? Labour is committed to ensuring that our wives, girlfriends, daughters, granddaughters, mothers, grandmothers and aunties receive the support they need.

And let’s not forget our children. Labour is introducing free school meals in primary schools, capping the profits of private children’s homes that are financially bankrupting our Council, limiting school uniform costs, and implementing vital child protection measures. Reform and the Conservatives voted to block all of these initiatives.

Whether it’s workers, women, families, or vulnerable children, it’s not what these right-wing millionaire politicians say that matters; it’s what they do that counts. Their voting record is crystal clear: they don’t care about us.