This week's MP's column comes from Naz Shah, Labour MP for Bradford West

I OFTEN talk about austerity in Bradford, and yes, it is easy to say, ‘ooh no, another MP going on about austerity again’ but I cannot stress enough the impact 10 years of cuts has had in Bradford. £300m has been stripped from the Council budget over the last decade. 

The fourth largest Council authority has been financially halved and with that, local residents have been hit, and so have facilities and services, which we have pride in, have either reduced or disappeared completely. 

Let me be quite clear about this. These cuts and these closures have come from the Government in Westminster. 

It frustrates many local residents that they keep paying more but getting less. 

Whilst I empathise with my constituents, I remind them that, locally, the Labour Council have had to be gatekeepers implementing a patently horrific Tory economic policy, whilst simultaneously protecting vital services that help our families, friends and neighbours most in need.

Don’t let the Tories get away with the blame game they are trying to play locally, they need to be held accountable for the actions of successive Tory Prime Ministers that have, year after year forced austerity measures on your Council. 

It’s hard to ignore the economic impact of Covid in our district. 
Unemployment has sharply risen and remains high, the ONS highlighted Bradford district as having the fourth highest unemployment rate in the country. 

Our young people aged 16-24 are also adversely affected as we have a youth unemployment rate of 11.4 per cent, the highest in the country. 

Our BAME communities have been disproportionately affected by the virus and also more likely to be working in jobs and sectors most affected by successive lockdowns.

I continually stand in Parliament and challenge the Government to do more in Bradford, yet it falls on deaf ears.

Recently we have seen public sector jobs moved out of London to the North and yet they bypassed Bradford, instead opting for Darlington and Leeds.

I wish I could say I am surprised, but I see the reaction Government Ministers have when I challenged them to do more for our area and I can say these decisions sadden me with an ever-increasing regularity.

When will the Government match their levelling up rhetoric with action in Bradford? 

Locally the Council alongside University of Bradford, Deputy Vice Chancellor, Professor Zahir Irani recently launched their economic recovery plan for the district, a multi-step plan to get Bradford back on its feet and reaching higher than before. 

It focuses on job creation, upskilling our workforce enhancing connectivity and building up the image and reputation of our district. 

The plan aims to utilise our community’s strengths to seize opportunities, a greener economy, a district of culture based on our diversity, drive innovation through technology, equip the young with skills and confidence they need. 

This is what economic ambition for the present and the future looks like. 
Our Council has faith in our economic future, I just hope the Government does too.

The Tories are happy to pass the buck to local communities whilst handing contracts to their friends. 

We must be clear, it’s the Tories in Westminster that have made the lives of people from Bradford worse over the last decade and we mustn’t allow them to get away with it.