The UK Government must act to protect vulnerable Afghan nationals

I’m utterly dismayed by the UK Government’s handling of our withdrawal from Afghanistan, which ended our 20-year involvement in the country.

Despite having years to prepare for the withdrawal and the widespread understanding that the Government in Afghanistan would be unable to hold back the Taliban advance, our government left behind thousands of people who are now at risk from Taliban persecution. This includes British Citizens, people who directly helped our soldiers, and others who worked for charities and NGOs in an attempt to improve the lives of ordinary Afghans. Even more people also face possible persecution simply because of their gender, occupation, ethnicity, or religion. The UK government has abandoned them all.

The Government now has a moral duty to ensure the UK plays its part in helping the refugees created by our withdrawal. We must help as many refugees as we can directly and reverse the previous cut to aid that was helping ordinary Afghans. Funds must immediately be made available to local authorities so that they can house refugees and we must do more than simply accept as refugees those who miraculously make it to the UK via so-called ‘safe routes’. It will take years for the UK to recover from one of its worst foreign policy disasters in decades, but this would be a good place to start.

I voted against the Universal Credit Cut 

Earlier this week I joined my Labour colleagues and voted against the Tory’s devastating cuts to Universal Credit. On Monday the Work & Pensions Secretary had toured the television studios telling Universal Credit claimants that all they needed to do to make up the £20 a week cut was work an extra two hours a week. That was either a deliberate lie or the Work & Pensions Secretary has no idea how Universal Credit works. The reality is that carer earning minimum wage, in receipt of Universal Credit and working full time would have to work another 9 hours a week to make up for the £20 cut. It is clearly impossible for minimum wage workers, already working full time to invent an extra day of the week in which they can work.

The devastating impact of these cuts should not be underestimated. The cuts will mean that overnight the very workers who got us through this crisis will lose £1000 a year. This will be the biggest ever overnight cut to social security. It will push thousands of families back to food banks and will literally take food out of the mouths of children.

There is also likely to be awful economic consequences. Universal Credit recipients do not hide their money in offshore tax-havens. They spend it almost immediately in their local shops. This is not just a cut for recipients of Universal cut but for every part of their local economy. If the Government wants to halt our economic recovery in its tracks while pushing millions deeper into poverty then this is exactly the step they should be taking.  

The Government must act now to protect the NHS  

Earlier this week the Prime Minister announced his so-called ‘winter plan’ for Covid. Unfortunately, the revealing of this plan against the background of stark warning from scientists about a difficult winter seems all too similar to last Autumn. As the NHS continues to strain under a high rate of hospitalisations and more than 1,000 people tragically die from Covid as a result of this Government’s decision to let the virus rip, we are heading into the Autumn in a difficult position compared to many of our European neighbours. Meanwhile, the ONS shows that infection rates in schools are now rising with schools back from the summer holidays.

Last winter we experienced a devastating wave of Covid infections as a result of the Government’s delay in taking decisive action. Now the plan announced by the PM this week shows that no lessons have been learned. Instead of taking action now, to reintroduce widespread mask-wearing and working from home, the Government is happy to sit and wait until they are forced into action by the sheer rate of infections. This is very bad news for the NHS, our Care homes, and our country as a whole. I hope that moving forward the Prime Minister will be persuaded to change course and not repeat the many mistakes he has so far made and which have led to such tragic consequences.

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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