Emma Lewell-Buck

Lewell-Buck joined the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Hunger and Food Poverty chaired by Frank Field and the Bishop of Truro. The group launched an inquiry into the root causes behind hunger, food poverty and the rise in demand of food banks across the UK, and published its final report in the House of Commons on 8 December 2014. After the report Lewell-Buck said in Parliament "Food poverty is a clear consequence of the Government's ideological assault on the social safety net and the people who rely on it. One hungry person is a complete disgrace, but thousands of hungry people are a national disaster."[18]

In November 2017 Lewell-Buck introduced a Private Members' Bill (under the Ten Minute Rule), the Food Insecurity Bill, "to require the Government to monitor and report on food insecurity and to make provision for official statistics on food insecurity."[19] The bill was passed for second reading to be heard 2 February 2018.[20]

During Lewell-Buck's election campaign of 2013, she said helping to bring jobs to the unemployed of South Shields was a priority. In November 2013 she organised a jobs fair in her constituency, which was repeated in November 2014 after she pledged to make it into an annual event.[21]

In 2018, Lewell-Buck expressed concern about the large number of children in care; there were 75,420 children in care in England in March 2018, a rise of 4% from the year before. She said the rise was due to government cuts to support services like Sure Start, which could help children stay with their families. Lewell-Buck said, "The government is missing valuable opportunities to keep children in the care of their families. Not only does that add pressure to budgets already decimated by austerity, it also leaves children and their families with deep and enduring emotional scars."[22]

Lewell-Buck is opposed to COVID-19 vaccine passports and was one of 8 Labour MPs who voted against their introduction as part of the government's 'Plan B' restrictions in December 2021.[23][24] She was also one of 22 Labour MPs who voted against mandatory vaccination of NHS staff.[25]

In November 2022, Emma Lewell-Buck became a founder member of the Child of the North APPG; created to address the inequalities facing children across the North of England. [26]

Lewell-Buck employed her husband, Simon, as a researcher in 2015 despite his being suspended from his job as a carer and having lost his place on a nursing course in response to allegations of swearing at and neglect of vulnerable adults in his care.[27] The allegations were upheld.[28] However, a watchdog investigation found the local authority had made procedural errors and was asked to pay £400 in compensation to Mr Buck. An independent social worker also reviewed the evidence and found that no abuse had taken place.[29] Several members of her Constituency Labour Party wrote to party leader Jeremy Corbyn to request her suspension owing to their concerns over his playing this role. Mr Buck was subsequently suspended from the Labour Party, pending investigation.[27][30]