Weekly Update – Friday 24 December 2021

A Tory Christmas

I’d like to start by wishing all my constituents a Happy Christmas and a great New Year. After another difficult year in which the pandemic continued to impact our daily lives and our faith in the ability of this Government to control it diminished further, it’s vitally important that whenever possible we all take time out to rest, recuperate and reflect.

But I also know that many families across Edmonton are simply not in a position to relax this holiday season. The consequences of more than a decade of Conservative Government are having a very real impact on all of our lives. This Christmas more than 9,000 families in Edmonton will have to choose between eating and heating. The unemployment rate continues to run at double the national average. In some parts of Edmonton, more than half of the children live in poverty. Wages are stagnating, inflation is out of control and benefits have been cut along with the vital local services that used to conduct outreach to the vulnerable across Edmonton.

Food banks should not exist in the UK. In one of the richest countries on earth, we have the resources and wealth to easily ensure that every man, woman and child is never ever at risk of going hungry. But under the Tories, the rich have gotten richer and the poor have gotten poorer. The result? A record 2.5 million food parcels were given out last year and charity has become a central fixture of poverty relief for the first time since the early 20^th century.

In light of the difficulties that so many are facing this year I’ve been working closely with the Felix Project to get food parcels out to many of those who’ve previously come to my office for help, delivering many parcels to constituents across Edmonton. The Felix project does amazing work by saving surplus food from suppliers and redistributing it to charities with the aim of reducing food wastage and getting food to those who need it.

If you’d also like to help out those who need it over the holidays there are many ways you can do it. You may want to consider donating to the Felix Project, which you can do here. Alternatively, the Edmonton food bank is always in need of support at this time of the year and their details can be found by following this link.

Chancellor needs to step up Covid support Urgently.

Entertainment workers are facing a crisis this winter as Covid cancellations devastate the sector. The Entertainment sector makes up a significant part of the UK’s economy and supports thousands of jobs across the country. But as people rightly follow the latest Covid health advice the consequences for that sector are potentially devastating. Plays are closing, productions are coming to a stop and the entire sector is slowing to a grinding halt. The majority of those who work in the sector are not rich stars but ordinary working people who rely on their monthly paycheque to get by.

But while the sector faces the same catastrophe it faced during the first lockdowns, this time the Government is simply refusing to help. Instead, the Chancellor has announced an additional £30 million that will be added to the Cultural Recovery Fund, a fund that supports institutions and not ordinary workers.

On Thursday I, therefore, wrote directly to the Chancellor to urge him to act now and support workers in the Entertainment sector by reintroducing furlough and increasing sick pay. It’s simply unacceptable for the Chancellors focus to be on the drama within the Tory party while ordinary people face an economic abyss. It’s time he turned his attention away from a leadership challenge and did his job.

Government is failing Afghan Refugees AGAIN

This year the Government failed the people of Afghanistan and betrayed those who risked their lives to protect UK personnel in the country. Having promised everybody and anybody who assisted Western powers that we would keep them safe, a botched evacuation from the country left thousands of those same people at the mercy of the fascist Taliban.

As the evacuation was taking place and the then foreign sectary was on Holiday and I was receiving hundreds of emails and phone calls from constituents who were terrified that their loved ones had become trapped in a country now ruled by a brutal dictatorship. In the end, the Government ignored almost all of my emails on behalf of those people.

Months on we now know that the Government isn’t just failing those it left behind, but the few that did manage to get out and claim asylum in the UK. One family who was evacuated and are now my constituents have been placed in overcrowded, mouldy, damp and unsafe accommodation. That family, which includes somebody who is pregnant, is not only suffering from the mental effects of being put into overcrowded accommodation but the direct health consequences of living with a severe case of mould.

We owe it to the refugees of Afghanistan not to fail them a second time. They have a right to claim asylum in this country and this Government has a responsibility to give them the tools they need to start a new life. That means housing that is fit for human habitation. I’ve written to the Home Office with my concerns but it’s clear that a big change will be required at the head of that department and across Government as a whole if we are to start, as a country, treating refugees with the dignity and respect they deserve.

——————————-

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