This week I continued to receive updates from local health officials, Enfield Council and others regarding the spread of COVID-19 in Edmonton. The latest data does show that official case numbers are dropping. However, cases overall remain very high as the virus continues to spread through the community. Although this has placed a strain on our local NHS services, we can all continue to play our part in helping to protect the NHS by following the key lockdown instructions;

• Stay at home
• Wear a mask
• Social Distance
• Wash your hands

In Parliament I’ve been calling on the Government to provide more support to those who need it, including businesses, the self-employed and unemployed. Enfield Council are also playing their part in helping the local community so please do remember that their website contains a very useful COVID-19 resource list which can help with anything from getting a test, to financial hardship. You can find the website here.

The Government must get vaccination priority right

The roll-out of the COVID-19 vaccine should give us all cause for optimism. Not only does it offer us a way out of the pandemic, recent surveys have showed that British people are overwhelmingly willing to take the vaccine. That is very good news and an essential element of a successful vaccine programme.

However, as the vaccine roll-out has commenced, it has become evident that varying speeds of vaccination across the country have resulted in a post-code lottery.

I also have serious questions about the order in which the Government has decided to vaccinate people. That is why I joined other MPs and medical experts this week and called on the Government to prioritise the vaccination of people from ethnic minority communities. The COVID-19 mortality rate for people from Black and Ethnic Minority communities is significantly higher than the average population. This is the result of a combination of complex factors, from that fact that they are more likely to be key workers to the commonality of underlying health conditions within these communities. But the end result is clear – COVID-19 poses a higher risk to Black and Ethnic Minority people. What I want the Government to do is recognise that fact and act accordingly.

Cancel the cut

On Monday, in Parliament, I called on the Government to cancel its planned £20 cut to Universal Credit recipients and to extend the £20 uplift to those on legacy benefits. If the Government moves ahead with its plans, then thousands of families will see £1000 a year cut from their income in the middle of a pandemic and the deepest recession for 300 years.

Yet again, the Government has revealed its priorities by showing what it is and is not happy to spend money on. While unwilling to spend money extending free school meals or support for vulnerable families on benefits, the Government has continued to shell out billions and billions to their friends in the private sector for broken projects like the test and trace scheme. If it wasn’t clear before it is clear now, this isn’t about what is affordable, it is about what the Government believes is desirable and the ideological hatred they have towards our welfare benefits system.

I hope that the Government listens to the experts and those who spoke at the debate this Monday and that they decide against cutting the £20 from Universal Credit. It must be an absolute priority to ensure that everybody is able to get the help they need at this moment of crisis.

No children should go hungry

Earlier this week I had the opportunity to ask the Secretary of State for DEFRA to extend free school meals to pupils with parents who have No-Recourse to Public Funds restrictions and to ensure that over the February half term no child goes hungry.

Sadly, not only is the Government refusing to extend free school meals over half term but as things stand thousands of children have no access to free school meals at all simply because of the immigration status of their parents. While I don’t agree with any part of the hostile environment, one of the most pernicious aspects of this policy is the Government’s continued determination to punish children simply because of where their parents came from or when they arrived in the UK.

As the sixth richest country in the world we should ensure that all children, no matter their background, get the food they need. Nobody should go hungry, full stop. Yet this Government continues to make exceptions to a rule which should have none.

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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