Tulip Siddiq – 2020 Comments on Nursery Education

The text of the comments made by Tulip Siddiq, the Shadow Minister for Children and Early Years, on 16 July 2020.

It was a pleasure to visit Bessborough Nursery and Pre-School and hear from parents about just how important childcare is to them, both for the development of their children and so that they can get back to work.

Nurseries are going to be crucial for our economic recovery, yet we did not hear a word from the Chancellor about childcare in his statement last week, despite a growing crisis that threatens the closure of a quarter of all providers. We’ve already lost 14,000 childcare providers in the last five years, and we simply cannot afford to lose any more.

Labour is arguing for targeted support for the childcare sector to prevent a wave of nursery closures, which would devastate working families and set back out economic recovery.