2012 November

On Tuesday 6 November 2012 Valerie attended the No Free Lunch? Campaign organised by the Association of Colleges to show her support for the extension of free meals to college students.

Valerie Vaz MP said:

“More than 100,000 students miss out on free lunches owing to their decision to attend a further education college instead of a school sixth form, Academy or Free School. This means that around 19% of students at Walsall College are missing out on free meals.”

The September/ October edition of Valerie’s eNews is now available to download. To view the September/ October eNews, please click here.

Valerie voted against proposed increases in the EU budget on Wednesday 31 October 2012.

Valerie said:

“I voted against the proposed 2% increase in the EU budget because it is not the time to increase budgets in Europe when the Government is pursuing an austerity budget at home that is affecting hardworking individuals and their families.

“There needs to be reform within the EU rather than an increase in the budget to get the best deal for taxpayers. Savings in areas such as the Common Agricultural Policy could reduce UK contributions, enabling a real term reduction that would be beneficial to the UK and other EU nations.

You can read the full debate here.