Baron Coaker of Gedling has made a personal pledge to do ‘all he can’ to create a fairer, more equal society.
Making his maiden speech in the House of Lords, the Labour peer said: “It cannot be right that 2.5 million people are having to use food banks, 980,000 of these going to children.
“It can’t be right that over 6 million people depend on universal credit to survive.
“It can’t be right that 14.5 million live in relative poverty, 4.3 million children.
“It can’t be right that where you live still determines your life expectancy, your health, your educational outcome.
“It can’t be right that the richest 1% have almost a quarter of UK wealth.”
Lord Coaker said the pandemic has shown that the State can act quickly if required.
He said: “If the pandemic has shown us anything, it is the power of the state, both local and national to act swiftly and decisively for the benefit of all communities in every region.
“So, I say this, why does the state not act with the same level of urgency now for the sake of our communities?
“I do not want in 30 years time for another peer to be raising the same issues of poverty and inequality about our communities as I am today.
“So, my task will be, through the vehicle of the Labour Party to play my part however small, in saying that my vision is ‘it does not have to be like this’. The state needs to act and that is how this Queen’s Speech will be judged.”
Hope and a vision is what people want. As the great Romantic poet Shelley said. “To hope until hope creates from its very own wreck the thing it contemplates”.
“So, my hope, my vision, is to do all I can for a fairer, more equal society.
Baron Coaker concluded: “My Lords the power of our words needs to ring out across our nation. The dream of a better future is one we have to make a reality.”
