PRESS RELEASE FROM LIAM BYRNE MP
Liam Byrne welcomes breakthrough for Britain's innocent victims of booze
Liam Byrne, the founder and chair of the cross-party group in parliament for children of alcoholics, today hailed the government's announcement of a £6 million package of help for Britain's innocent victims of booze - the children of parents who drink too much.
The Labour MP for Hodge Hill created the parliamentary campaign after losing his father to a long struggle with alcohol in 2015.
Since then:
- Parliamentarians came together to form a group to lobby for change
- The group used nationwide Freedom of Information requests to expose the scandalous lack of provision to help children of alcoholics
- The group published its first 10 point manifesto for change, written by children of alcoholics
- The group helped launch parliamentary research into the scale of the problem
- The Labour Party made a manifesto commitment to bring change, championed by shadow health secretary Jon Ashworth
- MPs met Jeremy Hunt to discuss the plan earlier this year
Liam Byrne said:
'We know as children of alcoholics that we can't change things for parents - but we can change things for our country's kids. This is a huge step forward for Britain's innocent victims of booze; the kids of parents who drink too much and end up scarred for life.
'This is a victory for common sense, for compassion and frankly for the power of cross-party working.
'I want to thank NACOA and the thousands of children of alcoholics who supported this campaign. It's an emotional day for me because, above all, I hope the Dad I Ioved and lost to alcohol is looking down from a happy place and can see how hard we've fought to spare children going through what he suffered as a little boy'.
Ends
Notes
1. Contact Harry Kind at harry.kind@parliament.uk
2. The group’s manifesto for action can be found here: https://liambyrne.co.uk/coamanifesto/
3. This year's report by the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology is here:https://liambyrne.co.uk/new-parliamentary-report-reveals-horrific-impact-parental-alcohol-misuse/
4. The campaign for children of alcoholics, NACOA, is here: http://www.nacoa.org.uk