Liverpool West Derby MP Ian Byrne has won the Patchwork Foundation’s MP of the year award this evening in recognition of his tireless work with the Fans Supporting Foodbanks (FSF) ‘Right to Food’ campaign.
The diversity and inclusion charity honoured Byrne’s campaign to end food insecurity faced by 11 million people in the UK by making adequate nutrition a legally-recognised human right. A number of cities have already come on board, but so far the government has not acted on the obvious need.
Patchwork Foundation also acknowledged Byrne’s efforts to secure greater access to justice for working-class communities and his funding of a housing and benefits solicitor to work in his own office to fight cases for constituents – and Byrne’s continuous support for workers and their rights.
Receiving the award, Byrne said,
I am sincerely humbled and honoured to receive the Patchwork Foundation’s top award of “Overall MP of the Year Award for the year 2021” as nominated by the public and selected by an independent panel. As a newly elected MP for Liverpool West Derby in December 2019 I pledged to be a campaigning MP for the constituency and to “take my constituents with me” to Westminster every day I went into work.
I would like to think that receiving this award is an acknowledgment that I stuck to my word and that the efforts of my team and I have been well-received in the constituency and beyond. I am very fortunate to have a small but incredibly dedicated, committed and capable team working with me – and this honour is certainly a direct reflection of their efforts too. I would like to take this opportunity to send a heartfelt thanks to each member of the team. It is the strength of our collective endeavours which brings us here tonight.
But we cannot and we will not be sitting back. There is always work to be done in politics and what drove me to enter politics drives me still. We will not stop fighting for a more equal and just society. We will continue the fight for a legal Right To Food for everybody and to have education about the Real Truth of Hillsborough and the cover-up taught to schoolchildren up and down the country – these being just two of the campaigns we are currently running.
I will continue to represent the people of West Derby to the very best of my ability every single day and I would like to place on record my sincere thanks to everyone who has voted for me to receive this honour.
The highly-regarded Byrne, a Liverpool FC fan, started Fans Supporting Foodbanks long before he was an MP, along with Everton fans Dave Kelly and Robbie Daniels. The organisation has collected and distributed huge quantities of food to people facing hardship and its model has been picked up by fans of other clubs around the UK and in other countries. The MP also runs the Real Truth Legacy Project and Grow West Derby.
Other left MPs were also among the winners, with Bell Ribeiro-Addy taking home the Newcomer MP of the Year prize and Zarah Sultana recognised as Young People’s MP of the Year.
SKWAWKBOX needs your help. The site is provided free of charge but depends on the support of its readers to be viable. If you’d like to help it keep revealing the news as it is and not what the Establishment wants you to hear – and can afford to without hardship – please click here to arrange a one-off or modest monthly donation via PayPal or here to set up a monthly donation via GoCardless (SKWAWKBOX will contact you to confirm the GoCardless amount). Thanks for your solidarity so SKWAWKBOX can keep doing its job.
If you wish to republish this post for non-commercial use, you are welcome to do so – see here for more.
Congratulations to Byrne, Bell Ribeiro-Addy taking home the Newcomer MP of the Year prize and Zarah Sultana recognised as Young People’s MP of the Year. Zarah Sultana impressed me within minutes of listening to her speak up. She has continued to impress with her effective questions in parliament.
🪸✨🪷🪸✨🪷🪸✨🪷
It should send a signal to Starmer, Evans and Mandy of the popularity of Ian Byrne. Should they try to withdraw the Labour whip from him in their attempts to kick socialist MPs out of the Party.
Let’s us not forget that all the four Liverpool’s seats are considered very safe Labour seats. Hence, all four Liverpool MPs have very much a target on their backs. I am not going to be surprised if Evans and Co are trying their very best to find fault and have them suspended from the Labour’s whip just before the next General Election.
Like Livingstone in 2000 London Mayoral Election, I don’t believe Byrne would have much difficulty in running as an independent for his Parliamentary seat and win it.
Bill Esterson, MP for Sefton Central will be safe from Starmer and his henchman Akehurst. No worries about him.
He endorsed Starmer.
………..& got rid of Sefton CLP Chair Andy Wilson, just to make sure.
WELL DONE Laura Murray for pursuing justice🎉🎉🎉 I am thrilled that you won your case against The Telegraph which has now apologised and paid £40,000 in damages for slandering you.
The Telegraph published a lie that Laura was an “anti-Jewish racist” and part of the “vile antisemitism of Corbyn’s Labour”.
Well done to Laura for taking action. The Telegraph has now accepted they published untruths and allegations without basis by ex Labour MP now put in the Lords – IAN AUSTIN. Austin has now apologised due to Laura taking action.
NB re 2019 general election Austin, begged the electorate to vote for Boris Johnson and the Tories instead of a once in a lifetime TRUE LABOUR opportunity.
Congratulations again to Laura Murray for taking action.
🧲🍀🧲🍀🧲🍀
Ian Byrne constantly mentions the ‘Hillsborough Injustices’ & for good reason. I was @ the game & despite being warned by my mates that there was a similar problem the previous year, became trapped as the volume of people increased. Because of this warning I decided to get to a wall & inch my way out of the first main tunnel & out of immediate danger.
The following year I took my wife (Evertonian) with me back to Hillsborough to show her the Leppings Lane entrance, as Sheffield Wednesday were playing Bristol Rovers that Saturday. Everything had been left exactly as it was. We stood outside & a policeman came over to us & asked who we were. I told him I had been there the previous year & much to my alarm he immediately contacted other police & we were taken inside. 3 policemen asked me questions about who we were & when they were satisfied, started asking me questions about ‘what really happened’. After being interviewed for about 20 minutes we were taken on an extended tour of the pens & then taken to a blue wooden observation point that Duckinfield used; you could see everything; the 3 pens pitch-side & entrances behind the stand, as well as the large gate that was ordered to be opened that only increased the pressure.South Yorkshire Police were, that day, most apologetic & accommodating. They couldn’t believe that policemen were actually pushing Liverpool fans back into the pens when they were trying to climb out. There was a gate at the front of the central pen but no-one could find a key. I helped a young policeman to his feet as stumbled to the floor; his first reaction was that I was going to hit him as I stood over him & this was a riot.& only when I pointed out what was right in front of his eyes & young faces were being crushed against the railings did he realise, shouting Jesus Christ I must get help!. He did not have a radio.
I had just completed my ‘First Aid Certificate’ & thought I knew how to give the ‘kiss of life’, I learned that you can’t breathe life back into someone who is already dead. At the time I thought they were unconscious & I was just getting it wrong but when I eventually started to make my way back to the car I heard someone’s radio saying there were at least 3 deaths @ Hillsborough. The trauma continued to unfold on the car radio as my friends all returned safe & sound.
I am a Bristol Rovers supporter but have lived on Merseyside for 46 years, Ian Byrne is right, Social Injustices should be incorporated as part of the school curriculum..
Ian Byrne is a lifelong Socialist and Social justice campaigner. He really deserves this award for there is no doubt his work on the Right to Food campaign has saved the lives of those brought to destitution by this appalling government.
Starmers Labour is also to blame for the dire situation the poor sick disabled and unemployed are in today – they joined the Tories, the MSM, the Establishment and the Zionist lobby in undermining and demonising Jeremy Corbyn. This resulted in a landslide victory for the most vicious right wing shower in living memory – and yes I am old enough to remember Thatcher.
Shame on all of them.
Like that’ll stop keef from looking at ways to be rid of Byrne.
And not a peep from the resident gobshite. Not even so much as a ‘well done.
Obviously bitter because keef hasn’t had a look-in. Ever. And no F***ing wonder.