A Wirral MP has spoken in Parliament in response to the Chancellor of the Exchequer’s summer economic update.

Addressing the house via video link, Margaret Greenwood highlighted the situation of a wide range of people who she says have so far been excluded from the government’s coronavirus economic support packages, including many who are new starters, newly self-employed, freelancers or who are company directors paying themselves through dividends.

The Member of Parliament for Wirral West also drew attention to a new cross-party parliamentary group – the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for the Excluded – that has been set up to look at ways of putting pressure on the government to help the estimated three million people who have missed out on support.

Speaking after her intervention in the House of Commons, she said: “This is a really important issue and one which the government must respond to.

“I have had a considerable amount of correspondence from people in Wirral West who have not been able to access any of the government’s support schemes and so have been left struggling to pay the bills at this incredibly difficult time.

“Care workers, joiners, beauticians, childminders and IT consultants are just some of the many people affected.

“People who have recently changed jobs and therefore missed the deadline for the Job Retention (furlough) Scheme; people who have missed out on the government’s Self-employed Income Support Scheme because they became self-employed less than a year ago and so don’t qualify and people who receive their income as dividends have been let down.

“Many people in Wirral West are facing serious hardship as a result of the government's failure to address the fact that so many people have not been provided for in the face of the pandemic.

“It is vitally important that the Chancellor looks at these issues again.”

To watch Margaret Greenwood's House of Commons video link speech in full, click here.