This week I thought I would do something a little different. I will first do the usual and list some of the main engagements I have had, but then I will talk about to some of the recent points of discussion in Parliament and the media.
I attended a virtual round table meeting with a number of head teachers from the constituency, including some representing schools in Newton Aycliffe, which is always the best way to understand their concerns and asks rather than listening to social media. The BEIS meetings this week saw our fourth session on Industrial Strategy. I also joined a briefing with the new Chief of Staff for No 10 which was very informative and he is a very different character to his predecessor. I had a session with the Confederation of Passenger Transport and also had next step meetings with regard to Ferryhill Railway Station. The week included a meeting of Local Government Finance and one of the regular sessions with the senior team at Durham County Council. I received regular briefings on the vaccination roll out and I am delighted with the progress being made to date.
We had a vote on Monday that was billed by the Opposition as “Conservatives failing to support the retention of the £20 uplift to Universal Credit”. This was the latest in a sequence of Opposition Day debates that have been engineered to deliver sound bites for Labour to falsely claim and insinuate that we are not doing or supporting something.
An Opposition Day debate is merely an opportunity for the Opposition to have something debated in the House, it has no standing whatsoever in law, or indeed obligations, to the Government. Despite this for two weeks now Labour have been so desperate to have a vote that their own members have shouted “Against” the same motion in the House and then voted “For” in the Lobby. This is completely against the principles of Parliament. Your Vote should follow your voice. It is a disingenuous practice and is continually wasting parliamentary time during this critical time of the pandemic.
On the Universal Credit uplift retention it is worth sharing my position. I have made representations to the Chancellor that I believe it should be extended whilst the pandemic endures but this is in the context that I have confidence that he is looking at how to most effectively offer government support as a whole. It is in the Spending Review and Budget that these decisions are normally considered. The Government have so far put support in extremely and effectively in many ways, including hardship funds; additional school meals in holidays and increasing the minimum wage amongst others and the Chancellor clearly said that the Universal Credit uplift was temporary. It was used as a tool, able to urgently get support in very quickly to people that needed it the most. However, it also helped a lot of people whose financial situation had not actually worsened. I therefore hope and expect that the Chancellor’s next actions will be more focused on targeted delivery as with the benefit of time he can target support more specifically to those in need. The Chancellor has to perform a balancing act here, for instance if we retained the £20 across the board he would need to add a penny to income tax. This would then cost everyone around £250 per year, which may well hit those families who are just about managing the hardest, creating new problems and hardships.
Another issue this week has of course been the noise around vaccinations and whether any were being diverted South. This was disappointing scaremongering and spoils a good story. The great news is that it is our North East residents who have had more vaccines in their arms more quickly than any other part of the UK and yet, we still see Opposition spokespeople opportunistically trying to falsely use and politicise a national crisis to claim a North/South divide and sow division to engender support.
The position was that when the initial flow of vaccines started to arrive it was our excellent local NHS that were amongst the first ready and we therefore have seen the delivery to our residents being recognised as one of the best in the UK. It was always therefore going to be the case that others would need to catch up, it is after all a “National” Health Service. Deliveries continue to come in proportion to the residents each area still have to vaccinate to achieve the objective of the top four categories across the country being vaccinated and protected by half term and I have every confidence this will continue.
I have to say that it remains disappointing that I get abusive emails from people denying a lockdown is needed, or that Covid is an invented plot cooked up to assist some shadowy “world domination” cause, frankly we’re not inhabiting the plot lines for the X-Men movie franchise, we’re in the middle of an unprecedented international disaster and trying to keep as many people as safe as we possibly can. And we all need to pull together to do so. I guess these are the same people that abuse our supermarket staff and others when they are asked to wear a mask. Let me say to you, and those individuals who propagate these damaging lies and ridiculous conspiracy theories via social media, I suggest you go and talk to the many, many, MANY people who have lost loved ones, or who work in the Covid wards of our hospitals, or in any of our Care Homes that have lost residents earlier than they should. Your denial of this pandemic is bizarre and reprehensible, you are completely out of order and should consider the impact your words and actions are having on our front line workers, our vulnerable and your local communities as a whole.
Anyway, rant over, and I absolutely know that the overwhelming majority of people are doing the right thing and I applaud you for your efforts. Please can I remind everyone that even if you have had the vaccination we do not know yet whether you can still carry and transmit the virus and really importantly it takes the best part of two to three weeks for individuals to attain a good level of protection from their vaccinations. So please can everyone continue to follow the rules, look after yourselves and each other.
Stay Home, Save Lives and Protect our NHS.
Stay Safe.
Paul Howell
Member of Parliament for Sedgefield
