Kate Osamor MP
Thank you for taking the time to read my weekly update. This week, as we approached the coronation and many across the country (though not here in London) voted in Local Elections, the Government spent time trying to distract us from the cost-of-living crisis by focusing on an investigation into former civil servant, Sue Gray. But as Local Elections results have shown us, after 13 years of excuses and distractions people have had enough. The Tories have made us all poorer, more divided and less equal. Voters are acting accordingly. The country doesn’t want yet another Tory PM, it wants a Labour Government to deliver real change. |
Debt in the Developing World On Tuesday this week I had the opportunity to question the Minister for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development, Andrew Mitchell MP on the government’s approach to the debt crisis in low- and middle-income African countries.Across Africa, many lower-income countries are held back by a sovereign debt crisis imposed upon them by a combination of rich states, like the UK and rich-institutions like the IMF. In Somalia in 2020, 98.9% of Government revenue was spent on debt finances. Countries like Somalia have less money to spend tackling poverty because they are shackled to debt which is often historically unjust and de-facto imposed upon them. As long as we continue ignoring this issue, we cannot make significant progress in tackling global poverty. The government’s most recent international development strategy largely omits debt relief. That’s why I asked the Minister to change tact and make debt relief a priority. Unfortunately in his response, the Minister pointed to a policy that the UK supports whereby some countries can pause debt repayment for two years if they experience a ‘natural disaster’. That isn’t good enough and it’s the sort of compromise that fails to tackle the core issue in front of us. The next Labour government needs to put justice at the heart of foreign policy and debt relief needs to be at the core of that approach. |
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National Security Bill On Wednesday I voted for the National Security Bill as it was returned to the Commons from the Lords. The Bill seeks to modernise existing legislation so that UK Law enforcement and intelligence agencies have the modern tools, powers and protections they need to do their job. For example, the Bill introduces new powers to protect sensitive sites from espionage and a new office to protect against interference in our elections by a foreign power, such as Russia. I supported some Lord’s amendments that would have improved the bill, most importantly an amendment that would have placed a duty on political parties to identify donations from foreign powers. For some years now, the Tories have reportedly received a significant amount of Russian money but have been able to hide many of the details of these donations from public view. In a democracy, that cannot be right. Unfortunately, the Tories voted down this amendment and will continue to keep much of their funding in the shadows. |
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The energy sector is broken This week BP revealed that in the first three months of this year, they made record-breaking profits. The oil and gas giant made a staggering £4 billion from January to March. That’s £60 million a day and £511 a second. Profits were made as a result of the war in Ukraine and on the backs of millions of the British people. Had the Tories not privatised North Sea Oil in the 1980s these billions would currently be making their way into the public purse and being reinvested to reduce consumer energy prices. Norway made the decision not to privatise its oil reserves and that fund is now currently worth more than $1339 billion to Norway’s people. That’s more than seven times the wealth of the world’s richest man, Elon Musk. Unfortunately, we must live with the consequences of privatisation and so have been made poorer, not richer, by the increase in oil prices. The consumer energy sector has failed, and the government has decided that the solution is to bail out the likes of British Gas by subsidising the huge increase in energy costs. This is sticking plaster politics at its worst. Huge amounts of public money are being spent to keep energy privatisation alive. The costs have been nationalised and the profits privatised. This rigged system may be great news for the bosses at British Gas and BP, but it’s not working for the British public. Privatisation has failed and it’s time to bring energy back into public hands so we can bring down energy prices and invest in a green future. |
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Thank you again for taking the time to read my latest update, if you have any issues that you would like to raise directly with me then please do email edmontonconstituency@parliament.uk . I’m always happy to help whenever possible. Kind regards, Kate Osamor Member of Parliament for Edmonton |