Thank you to the Tory group for bringing the motion, which I support, although I do find it astounding that, in 2019, we have so many young carers. I met an 18-year-old carer at the weekend who is looking after her ill mother and disabled sister. She's got no life of her own. She deserves a medal, she deserves support, but more than that, she deserves that life of her own, and the authorities are depriving her of that. The Government has made noises here about supporting initiatives against modern slavery, but then allow this to happen to thousands of our country's children. Had the girl I met the other day been trafficked here and held in domestic slavery, attempts would rightly be made to rescue her, so why isn't she and her family being given the support they need to free her and thousands of others?

Labour say that they're the party of the NHS and the vulnerable, yet we have a health and social care system that increases inequality. Children of wealthy families won't have their education or career hampered by having to care for a family member. Their life chances will continue to increase, while the child from a poor family will be held back—not by the fact they have a family member who needs care, but by the state withholding help that it could, if it wanted to, provide and that it's actually there to provide. That's what our welfare system was supposed to be there for, so that children wouldn't be working and taking the lion's share of the responsibility for caring for a sick relative. 

Young carers are working for nothing, not even the minimum wage. Now, some people defend the situation by saying that young people are keen to help in the care of loved ones. That's very true and it's absolutely laudable and lovely that children and young people want to help their sick family members, but just because they want to do that doesn't mean to say that we should let them—that we should let them sacrifice their lives, their young lives, to do a job that the social care system should be doing. 

There are plenty of things that we don't allow young people to do for their own protection, and we age-restrict it. In 2019 it's absurd that we have children who have to give care. We're a modern nation; so much has been discovered in the last 50 years and life has been transformed. We can cure all sorts of illnesses that couldn't be cured 50 years ago, all sorts of technological advancements, and yet we still have children who are forced to care because the state isn't providing the support they need.

So, I really do support the Tory motion, but I do so with a heavy heart, and a massive wish that this motion wasn't necessary. So, I'll be supporting the Plaid amendment but not the amendment by Labour, because it is typical of a Government that takes its citizens for granted, siding with Labour councillors and council officers over the people they're supposed to serve. This Government doesn't force local councils to do much. The least they can do is to insist they implement a young carers ID card. Even this Government should be able to do that, surely. Thank you.