Karen Kilgour’s Missed Promises and the March That Followed

This past year has been one of stark contrasts for Newcastle City Councillor Karen Kilgour. So recently celebrated as the first female leader of Newcastle City Council, her tenure has since been marred by a no-confidence vote and rising public discontent. Food & Solidarity’s efforts to engage Councillor Kilgour on critical issues of child poverty and unjust policies culminated in a rainy and windswept march by community members. The message was clear: promises made in opposition must be upheld in government. This article reflects on Kilgour’s refusal to critique harmful Labour policies she once opposed and the unfulfilled commitments that continue to shadow her leadership.

This has been a very busy and eventful year for Newcastle City Councillor Karen Kilgour. In just 2 months, from the 2nd of October to the 2nd of December, she went from being celebrated as the first female leader of Newcastle City Council to facing a no-confidence vote. Quite the turn-around!

As a reminder: this no-confidence vote happened after 5 Labour members of the council quit the party to stand as independents. They did this because they could no longer support what the Labour Party had done since winning the general election. This included such cruel and deeply unpopular measures such as:

• Ordering its MPs to remove the winter fuel allowance from pensioners

• Keeping the 2 child benefit cap in place

• Continuing to discriminate against immigrants with the No Recourse to Public Funds (NRPF) policy

• Creating an “open door” policy between the Newcastle Labour Party and the Saudi regime

• Failing, on a local and national level, to address the ongoing genocide in Palestine

They felt - just like the hundreds of members of F&S who signed our photo petition and millions of other people around the country - that they cannot support a government that enables Child Poverty. That a new government has to be more than a change in names and faces - it needs to actually fix problems and improve peoples’ lives.

The Labour Party knows that these policies are unpopular, even if they won’t now publicly admit it. Over this year, their failures and inactions have caused them to drop from a 19-point poll lead above the Conservatives in January to scraping just 0.5% above them in December. By contrast, Food and Solidarity spent this year providing over 3,000 food parcels to our members, fought against unfair evictions and bad housing conditions, and campaigned to abolish the 2 child benefit cap and No Recourse to Public Funds. Perhaps this is why Food and Solidarity - unlike the Labour Party - has spent 2024 continuing to grow and winning the respect of people across the North East.

Back to Karen Kilgour! If she continues on her current course, she could set even more records. Perhaps at this rate, she will set a record for the most no-confidence votes in her term as leader, or by losing her future election by the largest margin ever seen? Only time will tell.

After months of outreach from Food & Solidarity, Councillor Kilgour missed a clear deadline to respond to our reasonable demands for action on child poverty, as well as unjust policies such as the 2 child benefit cap and No Recourse to Public Funds. And so, on a rainy and windy day, members of the community, mothers, and parents took to the streets, marching to demand accountability. The weather was harsh, but our resolve was stronger. As was fitting for the Christmas season, we represented the ghosts of promises past—the unfulfilled commitments that haunt leaders who once vowed to make meaningful change. They carried a message that could not be ignored, a reminder that these issues will not fade away simply because they are inconvenient to address.

When a response from Karen finally came, after she was forced into it by by the march to her surgery, to the dismay of many it focused on condemning the past government’s actions rather than addressing the policies upheld by the current Labour government. Despite previously supporting the abolition of the two-child benefit cap and No Recourse to Public Funds during the Conservative government’s tenure, she now refuses to confirm the same stance under a Labour government. This refusal to engage with the reality of Labour’s continued complicity in harmful policies is a betrayal not only of our community but of the promises that Labour once claimed to champion. Read her response delivered after the march!

What is certain is that Karen faces the same choice faced by all politicians across this country in the next few years: stand for nothing and fix nothing to try and get a career in an establishment that is increasingly hated and increasingly failing; or stand for real change and win the support of unheard millions across this country who need an end to poverty and politicians who will deliver it.

Regardless of what Karen does, we at Food and Solidarity will continue to campaign for an end to child poverty by abolishing the 2 child benefit cap and No Recourse to Public Funds. We will continue to provide food and support for our members and work towards an organised workplace, community and household. If you are interested in being part of this movement, or know someone who might be, click this link to join Food and Solidarity as a member today, and be a part of an organisation striving to bring about the change needed for so many families. https://foodandsolidarity.org/join