Weekly Update – Friday 14 May 2021

The vaccination programme has continued to progress with those in their 30’s receiving their first invites via text this week and almost 4 million people in London having received at least one dose of the vaccine. This means 52% of all Londoners have now had at least one dose. That number is 83% for those over 50, 59% for those over 40 and 20% for those under 40.

The rate of infection also remains low in London. The number of positive cases across the capital on Thursday was down to 299 with a rate of 22 cases per 100,000 which has also come down a lot since the peak.

However, I am concerned about reports that the Indian variant of Covid-19 has caused increased infection rates in parts of North London and I continue to receive regular updates on this issue. It is important that the Government does not make the same mistakes it has made throughout this pandemic. The extent to which we ease regulations or bring in tighter stricter ones must depend on the science and data.

The concern around the Indian variant is also a reminder that now is not the time for the Government to withdraw support for those who need it. A hard deadline for the end of furlough and other measures isn’t appropriate when we have no hard deadline for the end of Covid.

Free Palestine

I received hundreds of emails from constituents this week about the unfolding disaster in Gaza, forced evictions of Palestinians in territory occupied by Israel and the attack on Al-Aqsa mosque by Israeli Security forces.

The events in Israel and Palestine have served as an awful reminder that despite many wishing to ignore the plight of Palestinians, the occupation has not ended, the siege of Gaza continues, as does the persecution of Palestinians.

In April, the Noble Peace prize winning Human Rights Watch released its yearly report on the situation. They stated that in certain areas, the deprivations that Palestinians are subjected to are so severe that they amount to the crimes against humanity of apartheid and persecution.

I wrote to the Prime Minister this week and urged him to speak out against the occupation, forced evictions and the system of apartheid which the Israeli state has created. I also urged him to suspend weapon sales to Israel and consider sanctions. Although it is likely that a ceasefire will be agreed relatively soon, it seems unlikely at the moment that any long term solution will be reached unless the international community once again works with the Israeli state to end the occupation, end the blockade of Gaza and work towards a two-state solution.

Voter ID is Voter Suppression 

This week the Government announced its priorities for the upcoming parliamentary session. Top of these priorities, as we emerge from a pandemic and the worst recession in 300 years, is making it harder for people to vote.

More specifically, the Government wants to adopt the techniques seen in the Southern United States to suppress voter turnout. To do this, the Government will require people to show photographic ID when voting. When trials of this scheme have been run in local elections the result was that hundreds of people were not able to vote because they may have forgotten their ID, didn’t know about the rule or didn’t have any photographic ID.

The issue that the Government claims this solves is voter fraud. However, voter fraud is incredibly rare in this country. Only six cases occurred in 2019. That’s six cases out of more than 32 million votes, or to put it another way, 0.00001875% of votes cast were fraudulent. An insignificant number, which did not impact the result of the election or any individual constituency races.

Taken on face value this legislation, therefore, doesn’t make sense. Why would the Government introduce a rule which will stop thousands of people voting to prevent a problem it knows doesn’t exist?

The reason is clear when we look at the consequences of voter ID. Those who would likely be prevented from voting or not vote as a result of the changes overwhelming vote for parties other than the Conservatives. Those who do not have photographic ID are disproportionately young and from black & ethnic minority backgrounds or have insecure immigration status. All groups who are more likely to vote for Labour. We also know that when turnout is high, Labour tends to do better in elections and when turnout is low the Conservatives do better.

So, by using Voter ID to reduce turnout among groups who are more likely to vote Labour, the Government is acting to damage our democracy and hold onto power. It’s clear that if we fail to stop voter ID laws being introduced the consequences could be disastrous.

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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