Liam Byrne welcomes breakthrough for Britain’s innocent victims of booze

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

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