May I say how pleasing it is to hear us debating this Bill yet again, as we did in Committee when I was the shadow Sports Minister? I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Wirral South (Alison McGovern) for doing such a wonderful job of promoting sport, particularly women’s sport, through her Twitter feed. One of the exciting things about the Commonwealth games is that women’s sport will be up in lights. For the first time in the Commonwealth games, we will have women’s cricket, which will provide a fantastic backdrop and a great example for the many girls who live not just in the midlands, but across the UK, as it will enable them to think of themselves as potential first XI players for the women’s cricket team and even to play internationally.
Following my visit to Birmingham, I want to put on record my thanks not just to my right hon. Friend the Member for Birmingham, Hodge Hill (Liam Byrne), who has already spoken today, but to the team at Birmingham City Council, who are the best example of municipal pride, putting on a wonderful show for visiting Members of Parliament. We saw all the exciting preparations going on around the stadium and the swimming pool—that was particularly exciting for me as chair of the all-party group on swimming—which will be finished in Sandwell in time for the 2022 Commonwealth games.
As the Bill has made its passage through the House, this has been a really important time to debate principles in sport: not just ticket touting and how ticketing will be done properly for the Commonwealth games, which I am sure the Minister will come to, but gambling issues and the promotion of alcohol, where the games can promote best practice in stopping some of those rather negative images seen throughout the sporting world.
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It is terrific that the new clause has been tabled, giving us a chance yet again to put on record Labour’s commitment to a living wage that would be another pound more—so instead of £8.72, which is the minimum wage, it would be up to £9.30 an hour. That could have a
considerable impact on the construction sector in Birmingham in the next two years. We are not necessarily talking about the top-paid engineers or those coming in as consultants; we are talking about local people and the impact that an accreditation path towards the living wage would have in the region on small businesses and on the many ethnic minority communities who run those small businesses, with a real boost for the local economy in general while our economy is going through a really tough time. We know from reading the Bank of England’s reports that our recovery and resurgence from coronavirus is likely to be compromised, which is all the more reason to give the region that boost during the construction phase.
I also want to put on record the work being done by the local trade union movement in Birmingham to press for this change. As I said, it is not just for the public sector supply chain, but in particular for the construction industry and the services that come into that industry in the next two years. I had a visit with my right hon. Friend the Member for Birmingham, Hodge Hill, who I am sure will make an excellent, important figure in the coming 12 months as he calls for the living wage. I have seen from his social media the moving images of food banks in his constituency and the importance of feeding the constituents whom he serves. A fitting aim would be that, when we open the Commonwealth games in 2022, no more people will be using food banks. When one looks at colleagues’ Facebook pages, one does not want to see images of food banks; one wants to see people being paid properly so that they can afford food.
From the testimony through local boroughs of carers across the country whose employers have been on an accreditation route to the living wage, we know that makes a huge impact—it is the difference between a worker working one job or having to work three. That also has an impact on families. We want to move towards the kind of society where a carer or a construction worker can, instead of working three jobs, work one job and get paid properly for it, giving them time to look after their family.
I congratulate the Commonwealth team up in Birmingham as well as the excellent new shadow Minister for Sport—it is great to have another woman in that role. I wish my right hon. Friend the Member for Birmingham, Hodge Hill all the very best in the coming 12 months. What a wonderful opportunity these games are, if done properly, for the midlands.