Weekly Update – Friday 9 July 2021

We should get the jab job done before opening up

Earlier this week the Prime Minister confirmed that the Government would be pushing ahead with so called ‘Freedom Day’ later this month. The Government’s own scientists predict that this could result in over 100,000 cases a day. Despite the huge success of the NHS’s vaccination programme, half of the population is yet to be fully vaccinated. This means that COVID-19 still has a huge pool of people that it can affect and while deaths are unlikely to increase significantly, without any restrictions people who would not otherwise have died will die and thousands more will be hospitalised and will suffer the consequences of long-Covid.

Scientists also suggest this will result in Britain becoming a breeding ground for dangerous new Covid variants. In addition, the huge rise in cases is likely to result in millions of people having to self-isolate which will in turn stop the economic recovery in its tracks.

The UK is the only country in the world that has decided to stop attempting to restrict the spread of Covid-19. In his announcement the Prime Minister posed the question ‘if not now then when’?

The Prime Minister’s answer of ‘now’ is clearly wrong. The correct answer is in a few months when the NHS has delivered the second jab to at least 80% of the population. But yet again the Prime Minister is stepping in to ruin the brilliant work that our NHS has done. As a result, people will lose loved ones, suffer the life changing consequences of long-Covid and the NHS could be pushed past breaking point.

I voted against the Protest Crackdown Bill

This week the Government’s Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill passed its third reading in the Commons.

I voted against the Bill as it did absolutely nothing to reverse the Conservative’s failure to address the epidemic of violence against women and instead imposes anti-democratic restrictions on all our freedoms including the right to protest. The Bill introduces measures that will mean protestors can be locked up if the police decide they have caused an ‘annoyance’, yet fails to introduce a minimum sentence for people convicted of rape.

I also voted for a number of amendments designed to improve the Bill, including amendments which would have introduced a specific offence of pet theft and an amendment that would have given greater protections to retail workers against abuse and assault. Sadly, but predictably the Government voted against those amendments, so they failed to pass. The Bill is likely to come back from the House of Lords with significant amendments to it which will give us one final chance to fight against this attack on democracy.

The Government needs to abandon attempts at voter suppression

As part of its wider attack on democratic norms the Government is taking a stab at Trump style voter suppression which is likely to disenfranchise thousands of voters across the country.

Plans to bring in restrictive voter ID rules to solve non-existent voter fraud is one of this Government’s most blatant attempts yet to tighten its grip on power through non-democratic means. A total of 6 cases of voter fraud were alleged in the last election yet trials show that introducing voter ID will result in thousands of people being turned away from polling stations. Statistics show those people who get turned away are far more likely to be Labour voters than Conservative. Thisi is the real reason the Government is pushing ahead with this cynical move.

A particular group this will impact is the Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities. Earlier this week I asked Cabinet Minister, Michael Gove why the Government is putting its energy into creating barriers to voting for marginalised communities rather than improving voter participation. In his response to my question Mr Gove said that Gypsy, Roma and Traveller individuals need a higher quality of education than they currently get. A disrespectful and irrelevant response that sadly highlights this Government’s contempt for accountability.

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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