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.
Featured Image – RawPixel
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New endometriosis pill helping hundreds of women with ‘debilitating’ condition to be made available on NHS
Emily Sergeant
A groundbreaking new pill to help women with a ‘debilitating’ condition is set to be made available on the NHS.
The new daily pill for endometriosis – which has been approved for use on the NHS in England by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) – is called linzagolix, and will be available for those who have had previous treatment for endometriosis, working to manage any symptoms they may be experiencing.
Around 1.5 million women in the UK are thought to be currently living with endometriosis.
Endometriosis can cause chronic pain, heavy periods, and extreme tiredness when tissue similar to the womb lining grows elsewhere in the body.
A new daily pill for endometriosis has been approved for use on the NHS, and could help over a thousand women in England every year manage the symptoms of the debilitating condition.
As mentioned, linzagolix will be available specifically for patients whose previous medical or surgical treatments for endometriosis have been unsuccessful, and will be given alongside ‘add-back’ hormone therapy – which involves using low-dose hormone replacement therapy (HRT) to prevent menopause-like symptoms and bone loss.
This is the second take-at-home treatment to be approved to treat endometriosis on the NHS, and it’s thought that more than 1,000 women will benefit.
In clinical trials, linzagolix was shown to be successful in reducing painful periods and non-menstrual pelvic pain, compared with placebo, hence why it has been approved on the NHS by NICE.
“This is welcome news for women with endometriosis who haven’t found relief from previous therapies or surgery,” commented Dr Sue Mann, who is the National Clinical Director in Women’s Health for NHS England.
“It’s another treatment option which will help women take control of their health and better manage the symptoms of this often painful and debilitating condition.
“This is a testament to our ongoing commitment to improving treatment, care and quality of life for women.”
Featured Image – Heute
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Wigan woman jailed after hitting pedestrian in Fiat 500 while driving high on nitrous oxide ‘balloons’
Emily Sergeant
A young woman from Wigan has been handed jail time after hitting a pedestrian while driving high on nitrous oxide.
Louisa Tunstall was driving a white Fiat 500 towards the East Lancashire Road in Wigan at around 7pm on Friday 24 May 2024 – a time when traffic conditions were said to be ‘quiet’ – but Tunstall was under the influence of a now-banned drug, nitrous oxide, at the time of the incident, Greater Manchester Police (GMP) confirmed.
While driving under the influence, 19-year-old Tunstall veered to the left onto the pavement and collided with a 51-year-old woman pedestrian.
After striking the woman, the car then overturned and, in the process, caused serious life-changing injuries.
When questioned by police, Tunstall stated that she ‘took her eyes off the road’ to retrieve something in the footwell before knowing the car had flipped, but she also confirmed that she had just been out to purchase nitrous oxide to use that evening.
After obtaining witness accounts, investigating officers were able to track down nearby CCTV footable which showed Tunstall inhaling nitrous oxide through a balloon whilst driving, seconds before the collision occurred.
#JAILED | It's not a laughing matter when you get behind the wheel under the influence of drugs.
Now Louisa Tunstall has to spend over a year behind bars after inhaling nitrous oxide and causing serious injury in #Wigan last year.
— Greater Manchester Police (@gmpolice) May 14, 2025
Further investigation by GMP’s Forensic Vehicle Examination Unit examined the Fiat 500 and confirmed that no defects were found on the car to contribute towards the collision.
Still to this day, the victim says she is trying to recover from the injuries sustained to her leg that will prevent her from continuing life as she did before.
“The incident is still very raw when I think about it,” the victim explained in her impact statement released by GMP. “I become upset when I think at everything which has been taken away from me and the ongoing affect it has had and continues to have on my daily life.”
GMP says it’s seeing the use of nitrous oxide being a factor in incidents they attend increasing year on year.
Nitrous oxide, also known as ‘laughing gas’, is reported to produce euphoria, relaxation, dizziness, giggling or laughing fits, impaired judgement, and occasionally dissociation and hallucinations – which GMP says affects reaction time and and is ‘likely lead to impairment’ in driving performance, particularly when faced with an unexpected or hazardous situation.
Tunstall appeared at Bolton Crown Court this week, and has been sentenced to one year and eight months imprisonment for having possession of a Class C drug, driving under the influence of drugs, and causing serious injury by dangerous driving.
Alongside being jailed, she was also disqualified from driving for two years and eight months, and has been ordered to take an extended test when she is released.
Emily Sergeant -
10th June 2024 
