Labour has pledged to covert more than 3,000 vacant school classrooms across England into nursery facilities if elected next month.
Ahead of the upcoming General Election – which is due to take place on Thursday 4 July – in a couple of weeks time, Labour and its leader,Sir Keir Starmer, have been outlining the Party’s vision for the both the immediate and long-term future of the country.
As part of this, the Party has today unveiled what it says is a “clear plan” for childcare and early education nationwide.
Labour is pledging to “give every child life chances” and “every parent work choices”.
Labour will deliver better life chances for children and better choices for parents with our plan for childcare. pic.twitter.com/JrthwOFX6B
At the heart of this is the intent to make childcare “available, accessible, and affordable” throughout the country, predominately through the creation of more than 3,000 new nursery classes in England – which will be done by converting spare school classrooms into “high-quality spaces” that’ll be paid for by putting an end to the tax breaks that private schools are currently “enjoying”.
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The Party says it’s also intent on delivering the “enhanced entitlements” the current UK Government has offered, if elected, which it hopes will eventually save thousands of pounds a year for working families.
On top of this, another key part of Labour’s plan unveiled this week is to make sure childcare doesn’t end when children start school – with one other major thing the Party is pledging including the promise to provide free breakfast clubs in every primary school in England, paid for by ending tax ‘loopholes’ and “clamping down on tax evasion”.
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Labour has pledged to create 100,000 extra nursery places nationwide if elected / Credit: Labour
Labour believes breakfast clubs not only give parents the choice for an earlier start to their working day, but also “drive up attendance and standards” and “improve behaviour and attainment” of pupils.
“Labour’s plan has been built by learning from how childcare works the world over,” Sir Keir Starmer explained.
“It stretches from the end of parental leave to the end of primary school, because every parent knows that childcare costs don’t end when children start school. Labour is determined to deliver not just more childcare, but better childcare and early education – for the best start to every life.”
As tends to be the case with politics, the Party’s plan for childcare and early education has been met with both praise and criticism from unions, experts, and so on.
Trade union UNISON and its assistant general secretary, Jon Richards, said the expansion of nurseries “could make the world of difference to parents struggling to find affordable childcare” and that Labour’s plans therefore “make a lot of sense”, but other industry-relevant experts have warned the plans are like a “sticking plaster solution”.
They feel that already-understaffed nurseries don’t have the space or staff to deal with the extra demand.
As well as its own plans unveiled this week, many will know that Labour has already pledged to stick to the current Government’s plans for a staged expansion of free childcare.
This started with working parents of all two-year-olds in England being able to claim 15-hours a week since April, and is set to be extended to working parents of all children older than nine months from this September.
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A full rollout of 30-hours a week free childcare will then go to all eligible families a year later.
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Manchester band Westside Cowboy release ‘thrilling’ debut album that critics are calling one of the year’s best
Emily Sergeant
One of the UK’s best rising bands have released their debut album today to glowing reviews from critics and fans alike.
Jimmy Bradbury, Reuben Haycocks, Aoife Anson O’Connell, and Paddy Murphy – better known together as Westside Cowboy – formed back in 2023 when they were students at the Royal Northern College of Music, so while they may not all be from Manchester, they definitely have the spirit of our city at the heart of everything they do.
After playing in different bands across the city throughout their student years, the four-piece joined forces to create Westside Cowboy – an indie rock collective credited with self-coining the genre of ‘Britainicana’.
Put simply, Britainicana is a cultural concept that mixes the hazy, mythic feel of American country and folk, with the sound of raw British punk, indie rock, and small-town life.
Westside Cowboy have released their debut album, It Goes On / Credit: Clementine Schniedermann (Press Shots – Supplied)
If that sounds like your cup of tea, then you’ll be pleased to know that Westside Cowboy have released their debut album, It Goes On, to the world today (21 August).
And the reception from critics, arguably, couldn’t be better.
Prior to the release of their debut album, the band had released two EPs, including So Much Country ‘Till We Get There in January earlier this year, and had started to make a name for themselves with their popular debut single ‘I’ve Never Met Anyone I Thought I Could Really Love (Until I Met You)’ in 2024.
They went onto make even further waves when they supported equally-rising American rock band Geese on their UK and Irish tour back in March – with many fans calling it one of the best support and main act combinations in some time.
Three singles from their debut album were shared with the world ahead of its release – ‘Kick Stones (The Boys)’ came first, followed by ‘Pin Up Boys’ and ‘Dobro’.
So, it’s fair to say the anticipation for album was high… and if the reviews are anything to go by (which we think they are), it looks like the band has very much delivered what they set out to achieve.
Westside Cowboy’s debut album It Goes On is now available to stream, or you can purchase a physical copy in a range of formats from their website here.
Take a listen👇
Featured Image – Press Shot (Supplied)
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UK set to be battered by storms as ‘unprecedented’ El Niño arrives this autumn
Emily Sergeant
The UK is being told to brace for a series of storms this autumn when the ‘unprecedented’ El Niño weather event arrives.
It’s already been a summer of extremes for the country, with multiple heatwaves over the past couple of months, but now it appears that autumn and winter are set to have some extremes of their own, as the Met Office is warning that this upcoming El Niño could be one of the most significant in recent memory.
El Niño is declared when sea temperatures in the tropical eastern Pacific rise 0.5°C above the long-term average, which therefore impacts global rainfall patterns and average temperatures.
The natural warming of sea temperatures is forecast to reach more than 3°C in the coming months, according to the Met Office, making this year’s weather event have the potential to be ‘the largest since the 19th century’.
The UK is set to be battered by storms as ‘unprecedented’ El Niño arrives this autumn / Credit: Johannes Plenio (via Unsplash)
El Niño will create a heightened risk of drought in the tropics, southern Africa, and north eastern Australia, but over in north western Europe – including the UK – it means we are likely to experience wetter and stormier conditions.
The UK, and of course Greater Manchester, is absolutely no stranger to a storm around this time of year, but forecasters say this could be an entirely different beast.
“We should be clear that this is an unprecedented event,” warned Professor Adam Scaife, who is the Head of Long Range Forecasting at the Met Office.
“I have never seen an El Nino signal this intense in our forecasts.”
Professor Scaife concluded: “A typical El Nino leads to an equatorial Pacific sea-surface temperature rise of between one to 2°C, with 2°C being a really big event. This implies that, if the forecast is accurate, and other forecast systems show similar extreme values, then 2026 will far exceed our recent experience of El Niño and its worldwide climate influences.’
Forecasters and officials, however, have warned that it could take months of sustained rainfall before rivers, reservoirs, and groundwaters are ‘completely replenished’ – which is when a drought can officially be declared as over.
It also warned drought conditions could persist into the new year as, despite El Niño, as current forecasts do not suggest this autumn will have the amount of rainfall needed to drive recovery.
Emily Sergeant -
10th June 2024 
