Weekly Round-Up

I was pleased to be able to speak during the Opposition Day debate on Universal Credit, access to remove education and the quality of free school meals this week. The Government’s plans to cut more than £1,000 of support will hit millions of struggling families across the country even harder and it is hard to imagine a more callous and unfeeling policy. After the worst recession of any major economy, the Government should be supporting families through this crisis. Cutting support for six million people in the middle of a pandemic is wrong and Labour offered the Conservatives a chance to cancel the cut, but they didn’t take it.  

The pictures we have seen of supposed free school meals being opened by families have incensed the nation. They not only demonstrate how the Government’s own rules are providing inadequate food to children but raise serious questions about how taxpayers’ money is being misspent by the Chancellor. It should concern us all that contracts continued to be agreed that happily swap £15 of Government funding for £7-worth of food. In Enfield North, almost 5,000 pupils are eligible for free school meals. Each one of those children has talent, skills and knowledge waiting to be unleashed, but they are being held back by a flailing Government that has its priorities all wrong.  How can it be right that Boris Johnson hands out billions of pounds of taxpayers money to Tory donors but refuses to feed hungry kids and chooses to cut support from those who need it the most? 

Families are also living with the consequences of under-resourced schools. The Government pledged to provide 1.3 million laptops, yet 600,000—the equivalent of more than 600 secondary schools full of children—have not been delivered. Sadly, we know that in Enfield North hundreds of children are still without the necessary tech. Kingsmead School still requires 100 laptops. Enfield County School for Girls requires 212. Lee Valley Academy still needs in excess of 120. I could go on. Each missing device represents a child being held back. Each empty plate represents a family deciding whether to put the heating on or to buy food. What remains constant under this Government is that families are being left behind due to incompetence and a lack of compassion and understanding. Again, a vote took place and the Tories didn’t even vote. I voted in favour of the Labour motion to give our kids access to remote schooling and give them the decent quality free school meals they need. 

This week the Government voted against amendments to the Trade Bill that would stop the NHS being part of any trade deals. The amendments would have protected data processing activity, databases and IT systems related to the NHS and any publicly funded health and care services from being included in the scope of trade deals. 

They also voted against amendments protecting human rights and preventing trade deals with countries who break international human rights laws, such as the appalling atrocities being committed in the Xinjiang by China. Our Trade Bill must not put trade above fundamental human rights. Where there are examples of genocide we must end our financial dealings with the perpetrators. The government also missed this opportunity to set out the UK’s principles for the negotiation of future trade deals, and to overhaul the plainly inadequate procedures for parliamentary scrutiny of those trade deals. But this Government seems only to be looking after the financial interests of big business. I voted to ensure that our NHS stayed free at the point of use and away from any trade deal, but the Government pushed back putting the NHS potentially at risk going forward.

As a vice chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on the Prevention of Genocide, we have been concerned with the lack of Governmental response to the genocide being perpetrated in Xinjiang and with Holocaust Memorial Day next week on the 27th, it is time to think about the consequences of inaction on these human rights abuses. There is far too much rhetoric coming from this Government on standing up to China and far too little action. China needs our trade – 25% of their exports go to the US, the UK, Germany, and the Netherlands with another 23% going to our close allies. The UK must work together with the international community to ensure that China knows we will not blindly trade with a country that puts the integrity and morality of our supply chains at risk. We say ‘never again’ with regard to genocides that have taken place in the past - we must show that we mean it.  

I had hoped to speak this week in the Urgent Question to the Home Office regarding the data deletion but unfortunately I wasn’t called. I wrote to the Home Secretary, Priti Patel, to express my own and my constituents’ concerns regarding the reports that 400,000 fingerprint, DNA, and arrest history records that had been held on the Police National Computer were deleted. This is incredibly serious and the Government have yet to make clear the potential effect this could have on ongoing investigations and trials. We need to know the risks of potentially dangerous criminals being allowed to go free because of this failure and the fact that the Government are unable to answer these simple questions almost two weeks later is worrying indeed.

I was pleased to meet with the CEO of Royal Free Foundation Trust, who run Chase Farm Hospital, along with other neighbouring MPs whose constituencies are also served by the trust.  We received an update on Covid vaccinations locally as well as discussing the impact of the pandemic on the operating hours and services of the hospitals. We know how hard the pandemic has hit waiting times for routine procedures and treatments, and it is also important that we consider the impact on those staffing these hospitals under unprecedented levels of pressure. It was good to hear the collaboration between the North Central London Hospitals, North Mid, Royal Free, Whittington, UCL and Chase Farm hospitals to ensure patients are able to remain as local as possible. The Hospitals are also getting support from the military on ICU wards, technical and logistics support in the hospital like portering patients and equipment. It was also positive to hear the progress hospitals are making in vaccinating front line NHS staff, local care homes and Mental Health Trust staff. While Enfield council and the local NHS services are making great progress in testing and vaccination of local Enfield constituents, we must all continue to stay home to protect ourself and our loved ones. 

Finally, many constituents have written to me regarding the use of bee pesticides (neonicotinoid thiamethoxam) on UK sugar beet farms. I share their concerns about this dangerous pesticide that could potentially wipe out the already endangered bee species. The EU has also banned thiamethoxam as a highly poisonous chemical, which is also an indicator as to why this should not be used on our farms and agricultural produce. I agree with the Wildlife Trusts that it is counter-productive to use these bee and insect pesticides when there is an acute biodiversity and ecological crisis. Labour will put forward an amendment to the Environmental Bill due to come back to Parliament next week. 

My telephone surgery sessions are continuing, and if you would like to book an appointment, please do contact my office to arrange this. Although my office is closed to the public in line with Government guidelines, my team and I are working hard from home so please do get in touch on feryal.clark.mp@parliament.uk if there is anything we can help you with. Remember –stay safe, save lives – maintain social distancing and keep washing your hands!