Weekly Update – Friday 10 December 2021

The PM needs to go

The Prime Minister broke the law last year by attending at least one party during lockdown and he is now trying to cover it up. While he knows he can avoid prosecution as long as Met Commissioner Cressida Dick remains in post, he cannot survive politically unless the attempted cover-up is successful. This appears unlikely given the sheer number of misdeeds he is attempting to deny. However, we cannot assume that the Prime Minister will be held to account by his party colleagues.

This is a government that has spent the last two years eroding pillars of our democracy. From the right to protest and vote to the standards we hold ministers to. Nothing is sacred when it comes to this Government. Ultimately it will be up to the country to sack Johnson and this rotten Tory government. We may not get that chance for a few years, but when it comes, we must take it.

Travel Apartheid

This week in Parliament I questioned the Health Secretary, Sajid Javid, on his decision to put a large sway of African countries on the Red List. This week Nigeria was added to that list and the Nigerian High Commissioner described the UK’s actions as ‘travel apartheid’. I’d previously put it to various Government ministers that none of us are safe until we are all safe, but having failed to ensure that developing countries catch up with our vaccination progress, the Government is now implementing hasty broad brush travel restrictions on those same countries.

We must do everything possible to stop the spread of the Omicron Variant, but the Government is once again shutting the door after the horse has bolted. Covid has no preference for the route it takes to arrive in the UK and community transmission of Omicron is already present here. So, while the Government is doing nothing to stop the spread of Omicron, they are taking actions that will potentially devastate the economies of developing countries and further slow the rate at which they vaccinate their populations.

Sickle Cell Treatment

On Wednesday I spoke in the Westminster Hall debate on Sickle Cell treatment. In doing so I thought of my constituent, Evan Smith, who tragically died at North Middlesex Hospital as a result of a failure to recognise how serious his condition was. I used the debate to urge the Government to do more to improve the treatment of sickle cell, in particular by ensuring that all hospitals have a concrete plan for improving sickle cell care and that lessons learned are shared across the country.

It’s essential that moving forward the understanding of sickle cell among healthcare professionals improves. All too often the signs of sickle cell are missed and the consequences can be tragic. I hope that the case of Evan Smith and others like him will lead to long-lasting change.   

A Fair deal for TFL

On Tuesday I questioned the Chancellor on his failure to offer TFL a fair funding deal. All too often the Government’s talk of ‘levelling up’ reduces inequality to a misleading binary between north and south. Yet 9 of the 10 areas with the highest child poverty rates are in London and the unemployment rate in Edmonton is double the national average. If the Government was serious about levelling it up it would look to reduce inequality everywhere.

Yet right at this moment the Government is refusing to offer Londoners a fair funding deal for TFL that would do exactly that. Instead, they are seeking to force TFL to implement cuts that would impact the least well off the most. In Parliament, I put this to the Chancellor who decided to play politics and blame the London Mayor. Yet the Chancellor knows the financial difficulties that TFL is faced with were caused by the pandemic. It’s time for the Government to stop playing politics and do the right thing.

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Thank you 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 MP