EMMA LEWELL-BUCK: The nation’s economy should never be put before the nation’s health

Like many MPs, I have been working from home throughout this crisis and I have no problem attending Parliament when it is safe to do so, but from what I saw this week it is not.

The whole sorry episode of Tuesday’s proceedings was beyond farcical. We queued to join queues to vote about how we vote in the future. The process took over an hour to conduct just two votes, the outcome being that online remote voting has now been abandoned.

In our new COVID-19 reality, this now means that MPs who have disabilities, are shielding, self-isolating or have caring responsibilities are completely disenfranchised. In turn, this Government is now denying the voice of the constituents of those MPs in the middle of an

unprecedented national crisis.

Some MPs were even asked to break some of the Government’s rules to get into Parliament. It would seem this was part of the rationale, to move the national debate away from the actions of the PM’s chief adviser, Dominic Cummings and the Government’s poor and reckless handling of this pandemic which leaves us having the second highest death rate in the world.

Public confidence and any authority this Government had was already hanging by a thread, after a delayed lockdown, a national lack of PPE, the lack of testing, tracking and tracing in place and the shameful policies around care homes that left our elderly people to die. The confusion around the ‘Stay Alert’ messaging and the easing of lockdown, matched by the Prime Minister’s cavalier attitude has led to the complete erosion of any shreds of public confidence remaining.

The news this week that the Government’s reporting of coronavirus deaths has actually been lower than they told us and that now the figures were being changed to reflect the real number of deaths only adds to this lack of trust in their messaging.

Forcing MPs back to Parliament also allows the Government to press ahead with its re-opening of schools and businesses against public health advice. The nation’s economy should never be put before the nation’s health, I would urge people to listen to the science, the health experts and to trust their own judgement when it comes to keeping safe - not this Government.

The North East is the worst infected region in the UK by this virus and within that, South Tyneside is a coronavirus ‘hotspot’. Our country remains at alert level four, yet MPs were forced to travel from all over the UK to exercise the democratic right of their constituents, increasing the spread of coronavirus.

Remote voting was working well, it ensured every single MP could represent their constituents. Surely in a representative democracy that is exactly what the Government should be supporting and facilitating? A Government that is accountable, transparent and open to scrutiny should surely welcome the full participation of all MPs. That this one doesn’t should really worry us all.