Sharon has written to Martin Bain, Chief Executive of Sunderland A.F.C., following the recent announcement of a sponsorship deal between the football club and Satsuma Loans, a branch of umbrella financial services company of Provident Financial.

In her letter, Sharon Hodgson MP asks for further explanation and rationale behind this sponsorship deal, citing that such a deal could undermine the positive community engagement work of S.A.F.C. by working with a payday lender company which as a representative APR of 1575% and on investigation of Satsuma’s website found that a £1000 short-term loan would mean paying back £431.04 in interest over 13 weeks which sky-rockets to £990.04 if borrowed for 52 weeks.

Speaking after writing her letter, Sharon said:

“When the announcement of S.A.F.C and Satsuma Loans was brought to my attention and further investigation of Satsuma Loans repayment schemes, it was clear that I needed to write to the Chief Executive of S.A.F.C. to get further clarification and rationale for this decision.

“Payday lenders can be a dangerous way of pushing people already financially squeezed into debt, and sometimes even further into debt, when they advertised such quick loans with the sting in their tail of high interest repayments. Personal debt is a problem here in Sunderland and for our top sports team to be working with them needs further explanation about why this decision was come to, and what Satsuma Loans will be doing to work with our local communities.”

You can read a copy of Sharon Hodgson MP’s letter to Martin Bain, Chief Executive of Sunderland A.F.C. here. 

You can read the sponsorship deal announcement on S.A.F.C.’s website here.

Following the publication of the Childhood Obesity Strategy, Sharon Hodgson MP has written a HuffPost blog on the need for the Government to introduce a plan to address child holiday hunger.

In the blog, Sharon Hodgson MP highlights research by SCHOOLS North East which showed that 14% of children in England rely upon a free school meal, which rises to 18% in the North East and the need to offer support to these children, as many will not have access to healthy food over the holidays.

In the blog, Sharon Hodgson MP calls on the Government to commission research into child holiday hunger, which would follow on from work done by the Healthy Living Lab at Northumbria and the APPG School Food’s Holiday Hunger Task Group, to help develop a child holiday hunger policy and to help create resources and training for providers of holiday provision, which includes a meal and enrichment activities.

The blog can be read here. 

You can also read Sharon Hodgson MP’s statement on the Childhood Obesity Strategy here.

You can read a speech by Sharon Hodgson MP on the need for child holiday hunger to be included in the Childhood Obesity Strategy, from back in January 2016 here.

Read a statement from Sharon regarding the Government's recent decision to accept all the recommendations of the Learning Disability and Apprenticeships Task Force last month:

“The recent news that the Government has accepted all the recommendations from the Learning Disability and Apprenticeships task force is a welcome step in the right direction to ensuring that everyone, regardless of their circumstances, need or background, have access to high-quality apprenticeships – a career route that can do so much to change a person’s life.

“The task force, which was chaired by Paul Maynard MP, made some important recommendations including adjusting the minimum requirements for English and maths to enter a level 3 course for defined groups of apprentices with learning difficulties and disabilities. Whilst we should be working towards improving the skills of our workforce, to deny someone the chance to make something of themselves because they haven’t reach an arbitrary level but can prove the functional skills required for the job is deeply damaging to supporting different people into their chosen career path.

“The Government have said that they will be implementing all of these recommendations, at varying time-frames, however, I will continue to keep a close eye on the work of the Government and ensure that they do not delay in the progress needed to ensure that all young people have the chance to make something of themselves.”

You can read a speech Sharon delivered in the North East on apprenticeships and social value, where she touched upon the issue of access to apprenticeships for those with SEND and those who may not be able to reach the minimum requirements despite proving their functional skills, here.

In her capacity as Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for School Food, read Sharon's reaction to the publication of the Childhood Obesity Strategy:

"After many delays and stumbles along the way, the Government has finally published their Childhood Obesity Strategy, sadly at a time when Parliament is not sitting and Members of Parliament are unable to scrutinise the document fully. It is clear why this is: the Government have failed to develop a 'game-changing' comprehensive strategy that we were all promised would help address the burgeoning crisis of childhood obesity in this country, and instead have received a 13-page plan which could have been a lot stronger and gone further to tackle this issue.

"Whilst this is a downgraded plan, there is still some measures, such as a re-commitment to the sugary drinks levy and the pledge that £10 million a year fund of that levy will be for breakfast clubs, which should be welcomed. It is also welcome to see that the Government have finally recognised the inequality seen in their fragmented school system where certain schools must abide by the new School Food Standards, however, they could have gone further with this and ensured that all schools had to adhere to school food standards. I will await with bated breath for the detail of how the Education Secretary will campaign to encourage all schools to commit to the standards.

"It is also welcome after the lobbying by the APPG on School Food, to see that the Government will be working to develop a new voluntary healthy rating scheme that will be taken into account as part of Ofsted inspections into healthy eating and lifestyles in our schools, along with the consultation with schools and experts on the new rating criterion. This will need close monitoring to see how the new scheme is developed and implemented. It is seven years since the last thematic review of school food by Ofsted, so I welcome the 2017 planned review on obesity, healthy eating and physical activity in schools, which I hope will be the start of closer monitoring of school food.

"It will also be interesting to see what advice Public Health England will be giving to schools for those at the front-line of tackling childhood obesity, such as our school nurses, health centres, healthy weight teams in local authorities, not forgetting the vital role of our school catering teams.

"One significant omission from this plan is the Government's failure to address the double burden of malnutrition and children's access to good healthy food in our communities all year round. This summer has seen almost daily press reports on holiday hunger and with tens of thousands of children reliant on food banks in the country, Ministers have failed to make any commitments to address child holiday hunger.

"This childhood obesity plan could have gone a lot further in regards to the food our children are eating in school and in our communities. It could have made serious inroads into addressing an issue which is costing our nation's health, and to ensure that we finally tackle this issue. They have stated 'this plan represents the start of a conversation, rather than the final word', I, for one, will continue to hold the Government's feet to the fire and ensure that they deliver not only on what they have outlined but also ensure they think wider than this on how best we reverse the obesity trends in our country."

You can also read a speech Sharon delivered in the House of Commons on the Childhood Obesity Strategy in January 2016 here.

In her capacity as Co-Chair of the APPG on Ticket Abuse, Sharon has today written to the new Culture Secretary calling on her to put fans first after a Wembley fact-finding mission where a group of Members of Parliament saw first-hand the activities of ticket touts at the International Championship match between Liverpool and Barcelona on 6th August.

Key findings from the fact-finding mission include:

• An example where a teenage Barcelona fan paid £170 for a ticket to the match, after a tout had told him the face-value of the ticket was £100, when in fact, it was £26.
• There were also reports after the match that a family from Spain, who had purchased tickets outside the venue, were subsequently turned away as their tickets were invalid for entry.
• A well-known name in the resale of tickets who was in operation on the day was Roger Leigh, business partner to David Spanton, who was responsible for the failure to deliver on 38,000 tickets and convicted in 2012. Other well-known touts in operation on the day, included Leonard Scott & Les Hawkins.
• Touts were in operation from the steps of Wembley Park Tube Station all the way down Olympic Way, and specifically in the area in front of Wembley Park Tube Station where there were up to 30 touts in operation.

In her letter to the Culture Secretary, Sharon writes about what was uncovered on the fact-finding mission, along with calling for the Culture Secretary to begin the process of implementing the recommendations set out in the Waterson Review with her ministerial colleagues in the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and back campaigns such as Fan Fair Alliance.

You can read the letter here. 

Following her letter to the new Culture Secretary, Sharon said:

"Following our fact-finding mission to Wembley, we uncovered the scope and scale of ticket touts operating on the ground and fleecing fans desperate to get tickets to a hotly anticipated football match at our national stadium. The fact-finding clearly reaffirmed the need for action to be taken by the Government.

"This is why I have written to the new Culture Secretary asking her to support our campaign by working with her colleagues in the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and begin to implement the recommendations in the Waterson Review and with campaign groups, like FanFair Alliance, and finally ensure fans are put first is this unfair market."

• The Wembley fact-finding mission on the 6th August was organised by the Office of Sharon Hodgson MP and Reg Walker of Iridium Consultancy, and on the day was attended by Sharon Hodgson MP, Kerry McCarthy MP, Nigel Adams MP and Reg Walker.
• You can find out more about the APPG and their recent activity by going to their website here.

Sharon has welcomed a letter of response from the Minister of State for Education, Edward Timpson MP, following the letter she wrote to him regarding the comments on social media by Baker Small Law Firm on SEND Tribunal cases. Parts of Sharon's letter can be read here.

In his letter to Sharon Hodgson MP, the Minister wrote that he shares the view that the actions of Baker Small were: “not a helpful action for a law firm to take, nor did it have the best interests of the child and their parents at its heart.”

This also backs up what the Minister said on the floor of the House of Commons during Education Questions on 4^th July, when Sharon asked him to look into the matter of Baker Small further, and he said practices such as those of Baker Small are: “totally unacceptable” and he would “continue to watch carefully how matters develop”.

Further in his letter, the Minister mentions a research project being undertaken by the Centre for Educational Development, Appraisal and Research (CEDAR) at Warwick University which is looking in-depth at the new system of disagreement resolution, which includes mediation and the Tribunal.

Sharon has welcomed this research project and is calling on parents of children with SEND to engage with the project, and said:

“It is welcome to see both in writing and during the last Education Questions that the Minister agreed with me that the practices of Baker Small law firm’s involvement in SEND Tribunals was completely unacceptable. As we both said during the passing of the Children and Families Act 2014, the system needed to be less adversarial – however, Baker Small didn’t seem to get the memo.

“The minister’s letter in response to my concerns is welcome, and I am glad to see that CEDAR are undertaking research into this area to fully understand what is going on within the tribunal system. I hope as many parents who have experiences of the SEND system as possible will get involved and engage with this vitally important research by CEDAR.”

This information also comes after Sharon Hodgson MP wrote to all 153 local authorities with responsibility for children’s services and received responses from 8 saying they had suspended all activity with Baker Small law firm, including Barnet, Cambridgeshire, Dudley, Essex, Slough, Southend-on-Sea, Westminster & Croydon councils, and over a third of councils who responded said they would never use Baker Small after the comments they made on social media.

You can read the letter from the Minister of State for Education here.

For more information regarding CEDAR's research project, please follow click here.

Sharon, in her role as Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for School Food, is lending her support to the Make Rio Count National Fun Day on the 4^th August 2016, the day before the start of the Rio Olympic Games.

This national fun day will highlight the good work of schools, charities, councils and others helping make provisions for children to get good food and free activities in the school holidays, and will coincide with the global nutrition summit in Rio, the day before the Olympic Games begin.

The global nutrition summit in Rio follows a similar summit held ahead of the London 2012 Olympics on nutrition and aims to build on the work being done internationally and nationally to address hunger and food insecurity.

The two specific asks from the Make Rio Count Fun Day, include:

• A new vision for food and nutrition security in the UK which delivers healthy, affordable sustainable diets for all;
• A targeted package to improve the life-chances of women and children most at risk of a poor diet, which includes:
  • Increase the uptake and voucher value of the Healthy Start programme.
  • Protect and improve child nutrition during the school holidays by piloting holiday provision for the UK’s most vulnerable children, and;
  • Conduct an annual national measurement of household food insecurity.

This national fun day follows on from important work done by the All-Party Parliamentary Group for School’s Food Holiday Hunger Task Group, which since its inception in 2013, has held a national conference in Sheffield on child holiday hunger, launched guidelines on providing food during holiday provision, written an update report on holiday hunger which highlights best practice around the country, and most recently, worked with Northumbria University to map holiday provision, which includes food provision, to identify where more support is needed to address child holiday hunger.

Following the launch of the National Fun Day, Sharon said:

“For many years now, I have worked alongside fellow Parliamentarians and experts in the world of children’s health, nutrition and education to ensure we finally end the issue of child hunger, including during the school holidays, and that is why I welcome the Make Rio Count national fun day to help raise awareness of what more can be done by the Government.

“The Government cannot attend this vital international conference and call for hunger to be addressed across the world, and not do anything to address it on our own doorstep. With evidence continuing to show that children return to school after the summer holidays malnourished and have fallen behind their more affluent peers in terms of their education, along with the rising use of food banks during the summer holidays, then it is high-time the Government did something about this.

“The government’s rhetoric on addressing hunger globally is welcome but inaction here in the UK cannot continue as it is detrimental to the future and the life chances of our children. That is why rhetoric on hunger in other countries must be replicated here in the UK and I hope that this national fun day can take us one step closer to seeing the Government finally address this important issue.”

You can find a flyer for the National Fun Day here.

Earlier this month (1st July 2016), Sharon spoke at a meeting of members of the local Washington and Sunderland West Labour Party, as she does every month, and discussed in detail her difficult decision to resign from the Shadow frontbench where she was Labour’s Shadow Minister for Children.

In the spirit of being open and transparent, and as only around a fifth of members were able to attend the meeting, Sharon has now written to all local Labour Party members explaining her decision and also why she is supporting Owen Smith MP during the Labour Leadership contest – which is currently underway - and she has decided to post it on her website for her constituents to read also.

Find the text of the email pasted below: 

Last month, I resigned from my role as Shadow Minister for Children. At our last CLP meeting, I set out my reasons for doing so, but, since many of you were unable to attend, I have decided to explain my difficult decision in writing.
 
Throughout my eleven years as your MP, I have worked first and foremost to be the voice of this constituency in Parliament. I have stood up for the people, and worked to make their lives better, to create a fairer society, and to see social justice, equality and opportunity for all.
 
I have loyally served every Leader; whether on the backbenches or frontbench. I never once engaged in the civil war between Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, and when asked, I dutifully served as a whip under Gordon Brown, then as a shadow minister under both Ed Miliband and Jeremy Corbyn. In these roles I worked tirelessly to hold the Government to account and helped develop Labour Party policy on children, families, women, race and equalities.
 
As you know, I did not vote for Jeremy to be Leader last year, but I chose to support him by accepting the position of Shadow Minister for Children, an area that is close to my heart. Here I had two key aims: to support the Labour Party and its Leader and to oppose this damaging Tory Government as effectively possible. I didn’t need to take a position on Jeremy’s frontbench, and could, like others chose to last September, have politely declined in order to work to represent constituents and our Party from the backbenches. Instead, I chose to step up and support Jeremy.
 
Unfortunately, I could not continue supporting Jeremy after the events that followed Hilary Benn’s sacking.
 
I was not part of any “Blairite coup” or orchestrated plan to damage Jeremy’s leadership. My decision was my own. On the Monday after the Shadow Cabinet resignations, I got on the train to London, as I do every week, and had no plan to resign. Yet, as Monday progressed, it became clear that Jeremy’s leadership could not go on.
 
As MPs such as Owen Smith, Kate Green, and Lisa Nandy left a meeting with Jeremy and resigned, it was clear that the situation had taken a turn for the worse. These MPs are not “Blairites”, and they resigned due to Jeremy’s inability to engage with his cabinet. Jeremy had lost the confidence of most of his Shadow Cabinet, and in turn lost my confidence in him as Leader. Instead of carrying on as if nothing was wrong, I stood up for what I believed and made the difficult decision to resign.
 
Labour is bigger than any one person, and is indeed bigger than all of us. When our party is teetering on the edge of political irrelevance, we all have a duty to act quickly to show that we are a government in waiting. We all pride ourselves in our beliefs of equality, social justice, and opportunity for all. These beliefs are not the monopoly of one person or one faction of our Party, and the only way we can make them a reality is to win elections.
 
We need leadership that ensures our electability, and respectfully, Jeremy is not offering that leadership. For example, during the European Union Referendum, Jeremy’s campaigning was lacklustre and he was, at best, ambivalent towards one of the most important decisions our country has made in a generation. Instead of playing a central role in our official Labour IN campaign, Jeremy and his team failed to attend any steering committee meetings. When challenged directly, Jeremy has not once denied this lack of involvement. During the campaign, Jeremy undermined us and, when members and activists were bending over backwards campaigning, Jeremy decided to go on holiday to Portugal.
 
Leaders must lead from the front and make our case to the country, but Jeremy failed to do so. In the morning after the vote, when the people needed reassurances and the markets needed confidence, Jeremy, as a national leader, should have been doing the media rounds, speaking to the many people who had stayed up all night watching the results. But Jeremy was nowhere to be seen.
 
Jeremy should have used the EU campaign to show his potential to become our next Labour Prime Minister. With the most important, high-level negotiations our country will ever see, Labour needs to have a credible voice at the table, working to get the best Brexit deal for the people we represent and stand up for as Labour Party members. Sadly, Jeremy has shown he isn't up to the job.
 
However, it was not only during the campaign that his leadership has been brought into question. It has been clear from his lack of engagement with his Shadow Ministers and the wider Parliamentary Labour Party where our democratic policy development processes have been over-run by the leadership or ignored.
 
This is something I have experienced personally in my capacity as a Shadow Minister for Children. My office and I spent months preparing for a Labour Party review into special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) to feed into Labour’s manifesto for the 2020 General Election. I identified the issues we needed to address; I raised questions in the chamber; I met stakeholders to discuss the review, and my staff put together a briefing for the wider PLP and the Leadership Office, and worked to get media coverage. Three days after the launch, I found out that my review had been completely undermined by our Shadow Chancellor, John McDonnell.
 
Without consulting me, John had announced his support for a Shadow Neurodiversity Minister and an autism manifesto. My office picked up John’s announcement on Twitter, and subsequently raised the issue with him, requesting an opportunity to meet to discuss the matter further. After receiving no response, my team made several more attempts to reach out to John’s office, which were all met with no answer.
 
The combination of silence from John’s office and the large number of inquiries from external bodies and the media, left me with no option but to contact Jeremy’s office directly. Instead of support and an offer to resolve the problem, we were simply acknowledged with the sentence, “I appreciate the point”, and then told to expect an apology and clarification later, which never arrived. Indeed, nobody ever reached out to discuss the matter with me.
 
In all my time in Parliament, I have never experienced such lack of communication or respect for a shadow minister’s work from a Leader. To form a credible and effective opposition, a Leader must work with the PLP and respect the opinions of their shadow ministers. Jeremy needs to lead his MPs as well as the membership. Sadly, Jeremy has failed to fulfil the parliamentary aspect of his role from day one.
 
Last summer, we were promised a revitalised and successful Labour Party, improving on the disappointing performance in the 2015 General Election. However, we have seen the opposite. The local election results in May were stagnant at best. For the first time in history, we fell to third place in Scotland behind the Tories, who now form the Official Opposition, and we only just held on to control of the Welsh Assembly. To win a General Election, we need to appeal to not only core Labour voters, but the wider electorate. Sadly, my experience on the doorsteps across the country is that crucial swing voters will never vote for a Labour Government led by Jeremy, and I have experienced this on the doorstep in Washington and Sunderland West also.
 
We are a Party of Government, not just a social movement, and we must never lose sight of that. We cannot forget that moment in 1997 when, after 18 years of Tory rule, we finally achieved power and the ability to improve people’s lives again. Neither can we forget the devastating defeats of 2010 or 2015, which have forced us to look on over the past six years as the Tories have tried to dismantle everything we achieved in Government. There is no moral high ground in being a permanent opposition, sitting on the opposition benches every day, knowing that you will never be able to make the real changes people need.
 
There is too much at stake. In order to sort ourselves out, and to work towards forming the next Labour Government, we need a new Leader.
 
As many of you will know, I publically supported Angela Eagle once the leadership contest was announced. This was because of Angela’s clear dedication to our Party as a member for over forty years, a minister in the last Labour Government, a shadow minister under both Ed Miliband and Jeremy, and as Labour Party Chair.
 
Sadly, before the nominations closed, Angela announced she would be withdrawing from the leadership race to ensure that we had one unity candidate and pledged her support for Owen Smith MP. I have now also given my full support to Owen to become the next Leader of the Labour Party. Since Owen launched his campaign, he has set out a radical policy platform that not only harnesses our stance as an anti-austerity party, but also pro-prosperity.
 
Labour is in dire straits right now, and we must heal our party, uniting both the membership and the Parliamentary Party. I hope you can understand why I made the difficult decision to resign and can show your support for Owen Smith to be the next Leader of the Labour Party.
 
As always, I am happy to hear your thoughts and comments in a respectful and measured debate as fellow Labour colleagues, so please don’t hesitate to contact me.
 
Yours sincerely,

Sharon Hodgson MP

Sharon has launched a survey to find out the opinions of her constituents on three key areas; the EU referendum, the Labour Leadership contest and local issues.

The survey will run until Friday 26^th August at 6pm, where the results will then be analysed and help inform Sharon Hodgson MP’s work as the elected representative for Washington and Sunderland West in Parliament.

Following the launch of the survey, Sharon said:

“As always it is important that I hear the views of my constituents, especially during such uncharted times with a new Prime Minister and government undergoing Brexit negotiations following the results of the EU Referendum.

“That is why I have launched this survey to give my constituents the chance to let me know their opinions on some of the key issues facing our country in the coming weeks and months ahead, and what they believe my local priorities should be as their elected representative. I look forward to as many constituents as possible taking part in this survey.” 

Click this link: You can find more details at this dedicated webpage on Sharon's website >

Sharon has supported a petition created on change.org calling for M&S to reconsider their plans to cut worker’s pay to fund the National Living Wage.

This follows a concerted campaign by fellow Labour MP, Siobhain McDonagh MP, who has repeatedly raised these issues in Parliament, firstly in regards to B&Q and now, M&S.

Proposed plans set out by in a consultation by M&S, include:

• Cuts to pay for unsociable hours, including Sundays, Bank Holidays and for working after 9pm;
• Targeting staff who have worked for a long-time within M&S with the member of staff who has created the change.org petition estimated to lose £1366 per year, and;
• The pensions of 11,000 members of staff being affected after closing the final salary pension scheme to new contributions.

The petition calls on Marks and Spencer to ‘think again and scrap these proposals that are targeting their most loyal staff’.

In support of the petition, Sharon said:

“The Government’s version of the National Living Wage should be welcomed by all as a step in the right direction to addressing pay in this country; however, it is important that businesses are not funding this new scheme at the detriment of their workers who have contributed so much to their place of work.

“That is why I am supporting this petition which is calling for a rethink by M&S, and hope as many of my constituents as possible will get behind this petition and ensure that the National Living Wage helps to raise the standards on pay and conditions for some of the lowest paid in our society, and not impact the pay of workers who have dedicated a lot of their time and service to their employer.”

You can find the petition at this link.