Labour says government’s childcare policy ‘fails everyone’ as reports highlight ‘affordability blackspots’ – UK politics live

Latest updates: Bridget Phillipson, shadow education secretary, says Labour will overhaul childcare system as reports show high costs and lack of availability

Good morning. One of the arguments being used by the Tories against Labour in recent days is that Keir Starmer did not make stopping small boats one of his top five priorities (or “missions”). It’s true; he didn’t. But Starmer has included childcare in his five missions (it is part of breaking down the barriers to opportunity), and this topic, which does not feature on Rishi Sunak’s list of five pledges, is top of the news agenda today.

There are two reports out essentially saying the same thing; provision in England is dreadful.

The median pre-tax cost of an hour of childcare in England is just under a third of the average hourly wage. London is England’s affordability blackspot where an hour of childcare in some London boroughs costs nearly half the average hourly wage. Pressure from the cost of childcare is not restricted to London, however. An hour of childcare in Manchester, Leicester and Herefordshire costs significantly less than an hour of childcare in London, but the median wage is also lower. As a result, childcare in these areas is as expensive relative to income as some of the most affluent parts of the capital.

The childcare model the Conservatives have built fails everyone, denying parents the ability to work the jobs they’d like, to give their children the opportunities they’d like, and is not of the quality that staff want to provide.

In the Britain the Conservatives will leave behind, tweaking the system we have will not deliver the ambition or scale of reform we are going to need.