THIS is the week the world must change. As Joe Biden takes hold of the Presidency of the United States, the hope by which the majority went to the polls must translate into radical change. The most divided and inequitable nation must find its common voice and unite to fulfil aspirations and that ‘American dream’.

Biden’s new administration will drive the pandemic down, - and pandemic that has tragically already taken more than 400,000 lives in the US. Biden will extend Obama healthcare and re-join the Climate Paris Accord with his focus on tackling climate change. Inheriting a nation of people left behind, Biden is committed to institute a Green New Deal, investing in green energy and jobs, starting with upping the minimum wage. He will build bridges not walls, enabling social and economic programmes to address the divides in gender, race and wealth.

There is a moment in an administration where you can reset the course of history; I hope President Biden can achieve this.

Contrast this with our Prime Minster now presiding over one of the highest Covid19 death rates in the world and the worst economic crisis of any developed country.

Instead of confronting his failures, he is entrenching them. His abstention on a vote in Parliament on Monday might have seen off a Tory Party split, but didn’t stop his plans to slash Universal Credit to the poorest, leaving social security payments lower, in real terms, than they were under Thatcher.

At the same time he is refusing to halt the five per cent increase in Council Tax that Labour is demanding, as it should be central Government that fairly funds Local Government, not another inflation busting increase for local people.

If this wasn’t enough, this week, Labour forced a debate on feeding children. Let me say that again, we had to debate how children are prevented from going hungry. Not in some war-torn country or where the crops have failed, but here in the UK. As one of the richest countries in the world, it is a scandal that the Government has failed to protect all its people.

In the first lockdown 200,000 children skipped meals according to the Food Foundation. Across our media this week we’ve witnessed images of the content of food parcels, hardly nutritious, yet Government are expecting children to feed off these offerings.

Three million people are malnourished in the UK. When children go hungry they lose concentration by day and at night their rumbling stomachs make them lose sleep. Yet, the Government, fixated with outsourcing everything, has allowed private companies to feed their shareholders with the profits they make out of the school meal contracts, instead of feeding children. For less than £7 a week, normally £15 in term time, parents are expected to recreate school dinners. At half term, the money will stop altogether, as if children didn’t need to eat for a week.

I have called for a simple cash transfer of the £15 to parents. Labour in York wants to set a new standard: for every child in York to have a hot, nutritious meal each day. We don’t want to do the minimum, but to do the best for children and families.

It is often a parent that will skip their meal to ensure that their child is fed. This can’t be right, nor is it right that 1.3 million older people are malnourished. The All Party Parliamentary Group I chair on Ageing and Older People will undertake an inquiry into this next month.

However, if we are truly going to address food justice, we need a new ‘Right to Food’ where no-one goes without, and all can access good quality nutrition.

With unemployment rising sharply, many more families will struggle to balance the books. The Chancellor has failed to support three million people ineligible for financial support packages. Their reserves have dried up and many businesses are really on the brink, if they haven’t already had to fold.

A leader would be embedding their recovery plan now, yet the Chancellor who has failed to support people is now nowhere to be seen.

As Labour set out last week, we need to invest in our recovery and invest in the long term, immediately.

With President Biden setting out his ambitious strategy this week, we need our Government to pay close attention. Labour is, and we are planning to rebuild this country so that it is fairer for everyone.