Weekly Update – Friday 28 June 2021

Windrush Day

Tuesday this week was Windrush Day, a special day set aside each year to remember the 500 migrants from the Caribbean who arrived at Tilbury Docks in Essex in 1948. Sadly, however, since the emergence of the Windrush scandal, this day is now marked by sadness.

Since their arrival in the 40’s the Windrush generation and their decedents have contributed an incalculable amount to the UK, changing the country for the better and becoming part of the UK’s story. But the Windrush scandal exposed this government’s appalling treatment of that generation. As a result of the racist hostile environment policies, which the Government continues to enforce, many members of the Windrush generation were wrongly deported, detained, lost their jobs, their homes, and were made destitute.

After finally acknowledging the harm they had caused, the Government then established a compensation scheme for Windrush victims. The scheme has been so slow to process claims that 21 victims have now died before receiving any compensation. On Tuesday it was those victims that I remembered as well as the Government’s continued attempts to deport the decedents of the Windrush generation. My hope is that on Windrush Day next year the victims of Windrush will finally have received some justice.

Local Government workers deserve a pay rise

The Government recently proposed a 1.5% pay increase for local council and school workers. After inflation this equates to a pay cut in real terms and comes on top of the 25% pay cut forced onto local council workers over the last 11 years.

After the proposed pay cut for NHS workers, this is yet more evidence that the Government remains committed to their ideological crusade against public sector workers. While the Government is happy spending billions handing out dodgy contracts to their friends in the private sector, they are seeking to ‘save money’ by cutting the pay of the front line workers who kept this country running throughout the pandemic. Workers like the bin collectors and support workers in school, many of whom are now paid below the living wage. They deserve better than that. The pandemic brought home the fact that it’s these key workers we all rely on, not the bankers and multi-national corporations who get tax cuts from this Government.

That’s why I wrote to the Chancellor this week and urged him to think again and offer council and school workers a well-deserved 10% pay rise. This would at least be a start in repairing some of the cuts inflicted on them by this Government over the last decade.

NHS Data Grab

In September the Government is introducing a new system to gather patient data held by GP surgeries across England. While the gathering of patient data can be very useful, in this instance the Government has not done enough to protect the data being collected.

This means that our data, much of which is incredibly sensitive, could very likely be shared with private companies without our consent. I’m extremely concerned about this. Patient data should never be shared with third parties unless patients have given their explicit consent. That’s why I’ve joined with colleagues across Parliament to call on the Government to stop this data grab and postpone the rollout of the new system.

If you want to opt-out of the data grab you can by sending THIS form to your GP surgery before 1^st September.

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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