Category: My work

Constituents have written in to me asking why those on Universal Credit, and pensioners on Pension Credit Guarantee must pay for Covid tests, whether they are Lateral Flow tests (LFTs) or the more expensive Polymerase Chain Reaction tests (PCRs).

The Government’s cut of £20 per week from Universal Credit (UC) in October 2021 has already been identified by charities to be driving more families into poverty.

Dementia charities such as the Alzheimer Society have already raised concerns that many will be unable to visit vulnerable, often needy family members if they cannot afford the high cost of paying for LFTs for every visit. Regular family contact is vital for so many people.

We have now entered a new era of a brutal cost-of-living crisis, with its attendant inflation, value of wages dropping, food and energy costs skyrocketing. This crisis is only set to get worse, and the situation is getting the publicity it deserves so we are all beginning to prepare ourselves.

And compounding this, we now see new spikes in Covid-19 infections arising worldwide, triggering warnings by the WHO, and new variants continuing to surface.  Australia is dealing with overwhelming surges in infections and Los Angeles has warned that it is considering bringing back a mask mandate for indoor gatherings. These are just two examples. WHO must be given the credit it deserves, and their advice adhered to.

I have previously challenged the Health Minister on the decision to drop universal free testing and one part of the reply by the Department of Health and Social Care stated “Universal free testing for the general public will continue until the end of March (2022), and it is important that we target our testing resources to those who need it most.”

The impact of continuing charges for Covid-19 tests will fall hardest on those on Universal credit, or on pension credit guarantee, or who regularly visit people who are immunocompromised and who wish to keep them safe. Given the cost-of-living crisis and the growing worldwide Covid surges, surely those who can’t afford to pay for these tests, must now be eligible for free testing.

We cannot afford to take any risks regarding a possible return to a resurgence of Covid-19 to pandemic levels, especially when we already know what to do.

Climate change is such an important issue, and during my period as Leader of the Opposition I made history by getting a motion passed in the Commons declaring an “environment and climate change emergency”;  the world’s first parliament to do so.

I would like to have had the opportunity of driving through our real Green New Deal from that period, designed as it was to avert climate catastrophe.

It is crucial to keep up with the latest information about climate change and we have reasonable access to this in parliament, however the timing isn’t always ideal.  I now have the link to that briefing and will make the most of it.

There is so much more we can do, and the direction in which the Government is taking us will not help, AND there has been minimal reference to the subject during the current leadership debates.

The campaign against the North London Waste Authority incinerator expansion has my full support because I believe the priority should be to cut back on waste, and not to spend more money on larger incinerators to deal with it, and all of the many drawbacks to that project.

I’ve signed many parliamentary motions on climate change as well as cross party letters, including a recent one to the Prime Minister entitled “It’s time to unlock onshore wind to support climate targets, businesses and bill-payers.”

I also continue to speak on the subject in parliament and elsewhere, including:

On July 18th, in a statement on “Extreme Heat Preparedness” I asked the Minister:
I thank the hon. Member for Brighton, Pavilion (Caroline Lucas) for securing this important question. It must be very obvious that in this age of extremes—extreme heat, extreme cold and flooding—our infrastructure is simply not capable of dealing with it and that we have not really followed through on the commitments we have given at successive COP events. Will the Minister commit to the Government taking a long, hard look at all the decisions taken at COP that we have or have not followed and all our infrastructure requirements that need to be changed, so that we have effective public services that are properly funded and properly staffed in order to deal with these kinds of extremes? They are not one-offs. They will come more and more often as the years go on and we have to be ready for them.

On July 14th I intervened in a debate “Protecting and Restoring Nature: Cop15 and beyond”:
Has the Minister had a chance to look at the comments made yesterday by Emma Howard Boyd, the chair of the Environment Agency, concerning the behaviour of water companies and the pollution in rivers, and her recommendation that instead of fining the chairs of the water companies that grievously pollute our rivers, consideration ought to be given to putting those people in jail for the damage they are doing to our environment? Is he going to respond directly to the Environment Agency and wish it well in that endeavour?
…
I absolutely agree that there has to be a measurement of the effect on the natural world and the environment, measurements of human inequality and all the normal GDP measurements. Would it not be better if the UK Government set an aim to come away from the next round of discussions with an agreed position on how we will measure the effect on the natural world of economic activity as part of the whole measurement of GDP? In that way, it would be factored in and give a legal status and entity to the environment and the natural world, as opposed to just discussing it as a separate thing as a consequence of our own activities.
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My right hon. Friend’s point about connectivity is very important. Is he aware of the agreement between a number of central American countries to create a wildlife corridor for the jaguar to survive, because it travels over a huge range? If it is cut off in certain isolated bits, it will simply die off.
…
The above are interventions in parliament. I have also made a number of Islington school visits, many of which focused on climate change discussions related to the London Schools Climate Summit 2022.

Many of my constituents remain concerned about Breast Cancer care in this country, and I share these concerns. 

A breast cancer diagnosis must surely be distressing, and it is unacceptable to consider that the situation could be a whole lot worse as a result of delays in diagnosis.

While the Government has pledged additional funding in the 2021 Autumn Budget for scanners and diagnostic centres, it has failed to address staff shortages.  It is estimated that the NHS will fall short of 6,000 consultant radiologists and 700 consultant oncologists by 2030.  This is shameful and means that cancer treatment will only get worse.

Unless this is done a University College London study found that the cancer treatment backlog could lead to 10,000 excess deaths, many believe the number is even higher.

I added my name to the cross-party letter demanding that the Health Secretary raise the Faster Diagnosis Standard (FDS) target to 95%, so that breast cancer patients get the standard of care that they deserve.

Improving screening rates to ensure earlier diagnosis of cancer, and funding new research to improve treatment options.
I also want to put on record my praise for NHS staff including our dedicated oncologists’ radiotherapists, technical staff and nurses who have worked tirelessly to help people going through the most difficult moments in their lives.

Many folk wrote in about the RMT Rail Strike and I was pro active in supporting the strikers for I consider railway workers to be among our the millions of “unsung heroes” around the country;  keyworkers who are so often overlooked.

It was clear to me that once the railways were privatised, we were going to see the rail companies start to squeeze the people who keep the railways going, the very people who were described as key workers by the Prime Minister during the Pandemic.

The priority for the rail companies is to increase company profits and the dividends to shareholders and the stock price itself.

I have always advocated that the railways, as a natural monopoly, should be re-nationalised, and I’ve maintained this ever since they were privatised, and there is a great deal of public support for this move. 

It is quite true that these companies keep on making huge profits, spending some of this on big pay packets for senior executives and bonuses.  Yet they say there is no money to pay the workers a fair wage for a fair day’s work, nor ensure they can retire with dignity; whilst raising rail fares and dragging their feet in updating rolling stock.

I fully support the RMT and their actions and am in complete solidarity with the hard-working railway workers striking up and down the country when it is necessary.  We cannot let the profits of the rich continue to grow at the expense of workers’ jobs, wages, conditions, pensions, and safety.

I was elected on a manifesto that committed to policies that would boost the incomes, job security and living standards of working people in the public and private sector.  I stand by those commitments and will continue to campaign to see them implemented wherever possible.

This has been a dramatic week in parliament. Boris Johnson finally resigned yesterday (Thursday), after an intensive parliamentary build-up and a record number of resignations from his cabinet.

He finally realised he had to go, and did so, with a not very convincing resignation speech in Downing Street.

Even Larry didn’t look very impressed by it.

The majority of the British media completely ignore the reality of people’s lives away from the Westminster soap opera.

One in five of the people of Britain live in relative poverty: 14.5 million in total, 4.3 million of which are children.

In London the average per borough is 28 per cent of the population and in Islington the figure rises to 34 per cent.

Ten years of Tory and Lib Dem government, and three successive Tory prime ministers have left us with more food banks than branches of McDonald’s, a deep and deepening mental health crisis, and horrendous levels of housing stress, plus millions of young people deeply in debt merely because they went to university to study with the aim of improving their lives.

None of this is an accident.

We have a government which has ruthlessly pursued an economic strategy of deepening inequality, with more billionaires in Britain than ever before, and deeper poverty than I can remember, many of the poor actually working.

We should never be condemning those who are defending their jobs and trying to reverse the trend of ever falling wages and deteriorating work conditions.

Rail workers deserve support not opprobrium.

In our wonderful borough of Islington, I remain inspired by the work of so many in the public services and voluntary organisations.

On Wednesday it was a pleasure to accompany the Whittington See ME First team who were shortlisted, and regional winners in their specialist equalities area and do wonderful work in restoring real inclusion in health care and policies.

I applaud them and all others who work in our health and care services.

This week I also visited Islington Boxing Club, a local voluntary group in Archway who have helped thousands of people develop their own fitness and in doing so enable them to better manage mental health challenges.

These groups and so many more show the resilience of unity, in contrast to this government which is obsessed only with management and economy that favours the super rich, rather than the majority of the population.

Over the next few days our schools will be reaching the end of the summer term and our young people will progress: some from primary school, Year 6, to secondary school, Year 7; others from school or college to face the world and all of the responsibilities that come with it.

No young people should be forced to face the uncertainties of expensive and unaffordable housing, or debts of over £60,000 merely by wanting to get a university qualification.

For those who enter the workplace, many will take on insecure jobs with zero-hours contracts.

I don’t know who the new Tory leader will be but what I do know is the people of this country deserve positive change and direction, after having been treated appallingly.

Everyone deserves something better, and we should be offering our young people hope, and nothing less.

Find the original article here in the Islington Tribune:

Corbyn: Now people need positive change and direction | Islington Tribune

As well as being Member of Parliament for Islington North, I am member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE).

In late June 2002 the Strasbourg Council plenary session took place. Plenary sessions happen 4 times a year.

I gave two short speeches at PACE during two debates in this session on 23/06/2022:

The current affairs debate – “United Kingdom agreement on asylum seekers and the critical government reaction regarding the European Court of Human Rights decision”:

https://vodmanager.coe.int/coe/webcast/coe/2022-06-23-2/EN?startAt=3081

The media debate – “The control of online communication: a threat to media pluralism, freedom of information and human dignity” – in which I raised the issue of the safety / danger journalists face, with particular reference to the killing of Shireen Abu Akleh, and the proposed extradition of Julian Assange:

https://vodmanager.coe.int/coe/webcast/coe/2022-06-23-2/EN?startAt=14232