LABOUR'S battle bus rolled into Cheshire today (Monday) and there were loud cheers as deputy leader Angela Rayner told the gathered crowd it was ‘time to turn the page on 14 years of Tory chaos’.
Macclesfield candidate Tim Roca is hoping to overturn a Conservative majority of 10,711 to become the constituency’s first Labour MP.
Labour clearly believe they can cause a major upset in Macclesfield – this is the second high profile visit since the campaign started, following the visit of Emily Thornberry a couple of weeks ago.
Mr Roca told the placard waving crowd: “The fact that Angela’s here, hopefully our next deputy prime minister, shows that Labour is treating this seriously.
“We’ve got a real chance for winning here. We’ve got a real chance to make a real change in Macclesfield but that will only happen if people vote Labour on July 4.”
Ms Rayner told the crowd outside the town hall: “What we’re offering at this election is stability because we need that definitely and we need to turn a page on the Tory chaos.”
The Local Democracy Reporting Service asked how a Labour government would help councils deal with the financial pressures of adult social care and children’s services.
Most of the council’s budget goes on spending in these two areas.
Cheshire East is currently £80m overspent on its special needs budget and is facing a deficit in that area of £285m by the end of 2030/31.
Ms Rayner said: “We’ve said we’ll put 6,500 more qualified teachers in the classroom by making sure that we end the VAT levy for private schools.
“We’ve also talked about mental health services and support to young people in the schools.”
She added by ending S21 no-fault evictions and by stabilising the economy, ‘councils will have more money because they won’t be spending it on homelessness, they won’t be spending it on the inflation they’ve had at the moment, so more money will be able to be invested in children’s services so that young people get the best out’.
She referred to today’s announcement by Labour regarding 3,000 more nurseries, saying: “The children will get that support really early on and that’s really important as well for working families.”
When asked by the LDRS where the nursery staff would come from, Ms Rayner replied: "We’ll have a workforce plan.
“Bridget (Phillipson) talks about colleges of excellence so that we can make sure we can deliver that high quality childcare in the early years, because we know that’s the most crucial time for young people to set them on the right track for the rest of their lives.”
With regard to adult social care the Labour deputy leader, who used to be a home care worker, said, with the workforce workforce strategy, ‘we will save money but we’ll also give people dignity’.
She added: “I know we can deliver that by giving home care services that are quality, driven by a high quality and highly trained workforce and it will save us money in the NHS.”
Macclesfield, which has always been considered a Tory stronghold, now appears to have become a battleground.
Since the campaign started, the Conservatives have also wheeled in the big guns – both David Cameron and Rishi Sunak have visited the area in support of their candidate, David Rutley.
Other candidates standing in the Macclesfield constituency are Neil Christian (Liberal Democrats), Steve Broadhurst (Reform UK,) Amanda Iremonger (Green Party), Dickie Fletcher (Social Democratic Party) and Christopher Wellavize (Independent).
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