School closures, childcare costs and tenants hung out to dry

Developments are unfolding ever more quickly. It has now been decided that schools and nurseries will close from Monday, with exams not taking place in May or June. The government has vowed that those affected will receive qualifications, but there are concerns that this could be done on the basis of predicted grades, which have been found to work against the poorest students and see black students get the least accurate predictions. There are plans to set up a national voucher system for free school meal recipients who will no longer be going to school, yet Labour MPs are concerned that details are scant and point out that the number entitled to FSMs will explode.

Another key issue with school closures is, of course, how the lives of parents will have to change. They cannot rely on childcare from grandparents who are more vulnerable to the virus, which means parents may have to lose pay or their job to stay home. The TUC is calling for every parent who needs it to receive “immediate leave to care for their children at full pay”. Could parents be compensated for looking after their kids? It is a stark reminder that the economy usually runs on the unpaid labour of women who care for children and then encounter the ‘motherhood penalty’ with pay gap and more if they return to work. This is yet another area in which socialists and feminists have made demands that are now being picked up more widely due to coronavirus.

The most outrageously inadequate coronavirus measure unveiled yesterday was perhaps the “radical package” designed to “protect renters and landlords” – in the words of the government. Emergency legislation will be introduced to suspend new evictions during the crisis, while landlords including buy-to-let ones will benefit from a three-month mortgage holiday. Sounds like a good first step. But what happens when time is up, at which point many tenants will be in a terrible financial situation? The government says “landlords and tenants will be expected to work together to establish an affordable repayment plan, taking into account tenants’ individual circumstances” and it promises to “issue guidance which asks landlords to show compassion”. This is utterly laughable.

Amid this crisis and all of the shocking news appearing daily, Labour’s leadership elections are ongoing. Could they be cut short? The idea was indeed discussed at a meeting of national executive committee officers on Tuesday, LabourList can reveal. But it didn’t have many takers in the room. The online ballots are being counted automatically, while postal ballots are counted as they come in, and contingencies are in place so there is no need to shorten the contests, according to a Labour NEC source. Neither delaying nor accelerating the process does mean Labour is in a strange place until April 4th, when results are announced.

In the meantime, we are paying close attention to the current leadership as well as the candidates. Lisa Nandy has been consistently vocal on the crisis, as the only one to appear on the Sunday shows last weekend. She called for a Brexit transition period extension early on, and is now urging an immediate increase in child benefit. Keir Starmer broke his relative silence on Tuesday to call for a “cross-government action plan”, and is currently asking for clarity on childcare costs and free school meals. Rebecca Long-Bailey has issued the boldest coronavirus requests: income protection, suspension of rent payments, a moratorium on utility bills, and a universal basic income. Whether setting up new systems can be practical in the short-term is up for discussion, but this much is certain: the government must take genuinely radical action to prevent acute poverty.