Cost of Living Crisis

The cost-of-living crisis continues to be the most pressing issue facing many millions of people in this country. After months of pressure from Labour urging the Chancellor to take further action to support families, Rishi Sunak finally came to the House of Commons to announce a Windfall Tax on oil and gas companies and a new package of support. Like most announcements by this Government it is too little, too late and months of inaction have left many suffering needlessly. I’m sure in a few months the Chancellor will again have to admit that the support he has offered is insufficient.

We need far greater action to address inflation across the board. If the Government was serious, it would have called an Emergency Budget and uprated benefits and pensions in line with inflation, to protect the least well off. Also, to truly tackle the cost of energy long-term would mean taking the ‘big six’ energy companies into public ownership and investing in a Green Industrial Revolution to massively ramp up the supply of renewable, green energy in Britain and reduce our reliance on ever more volatile world energy markets.

Sue Gray Report

This week you will have seen that the long-awaited Sue Gray report was finally published. Her report paints a picture of an unacceptable, toxic culture of rule-breaching and parties in Number 10 throughout lockdown restrictions by the people who themselves made the rules. Importantly, the report clearly states that ‘the senior leadership at the centre, both political and official, must bear responsibility for this culture’.

New revelations which are especially shocking are that staff in Downing Street reportedly treated lower paid security and cleaning staff in an unacceptable, disrespectful manner. I understand that these staff are planning to hold a protest outside Downing Street and I would like to express my solidarity. This shocking behavior only further reveals the entitlement of Boris Johnson and the people he surrounds himself with, believing that they were born to hold the levers of power and are beyond reproach.

If Boris Johnson had any shame, he would have resigned long ago. His attempts to shield himself by using the Ukraine crisis as an excuse for him not to be removed, is a grave insult to the struggle of the Ukrainian people. As it is clear he has no intention of going, we are now dependent on Conservative MPs to remove him from office. I wouldn’t hold my breath.

Despite this, the Government has clearly lost the faith of vast swathes of people who voted for it in 2019. This scandal is not going away and will not be forgotten. The Prime Minister’s days do now look numbered, even if he clings on until the next election.

Public Order Bill

This week in Parliament I spoke in the debate on the Government’s Public Order Bill and voiced my strong opposition. Rather than taking serious action to tackle the cost-of-living crisis, housing crisis, or climate crisis, the Government is instead trying to further criminalise the right to protest and shut down opposition. This Bill seeks to pass draconian measures previously included in the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act which were voted down by the House of Lords.

In my speech I raised the expansion of the police’s ability to commit searches without suspicion, within specific areas at certain times if they believe there is a chance of ‘locking on’ offences occurring, whereby protestors attach themselves to a particular object, building or land. These searches will supposedly be to look for items such as glue and padlocks.

I am concerned that these new police powers will dissuade people from exercising their democratic rights and making their voice heard, particularly if they have had previous bad experiences with the police, or if they know people who have. We know that this burden will fall hardest on racialised communities, which stop and search tactics already disproportionately target, and so it is our communities who will most suffer this crackdown on protest. All of those on the side of democratic rights and freedoms must express our opposition to the ever-increasing authoritarian nature of this Government and the Home Secretary, Priti Patel.

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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