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Jonathan Ashworth is to continue as shadow health and social care secretary under new Labour leader Keir Starmer, it was announced yesterday (Monday 6th April). The new Labour leader also announced that Ashworth would chair a new “shadow C-19 committee”, which will be responsible for co-ordinating the party’s response to the coronavirus pandemic.
Responding to his reappointment on Twitter, Mr Ashworth said: “We’re in midst of an unprecedented global health crisis and we must all play our part in helping country & our constituents get through this. Our NHS and care staff are responding brilliantly and have my total support [...] It’s an honour to continue as Labour’s shadow health secretary.”
Meanwhile, Dr Rosena Allin-Khan, MP for Tooting, has been appointed shadow minister for mental health. Previous incumbent Barbara Keeley has left the shadow cabinet. Welcoming Dr Allin-Khan to the role, Mr Ashworth said: “This is such a brilliant appointment. Parity for mental health and promoting wellbeing must be a priority especially as we confront coronavirus as a society.”
Source: Nursing Times, 6 April 2020
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Steve Reed named shadow communities secretary
Former Lambeth Council leader Steve Reed has been appointed shadow communities and local government secretary by new Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer. Mr Reed replaces Andrew Gwynne, who said he chose to return to the back benches.
Mr Reed was opposition leader in Lambeth from 2002-06, and then leader until he won a parliamentary by-election in adjacent Croydon North in 2012. He was best known before entering parliament as architect of the ‘co-operative council’ idea, intended to give residents more involvement in and control over services. Lambeth Council says that it still follows the model.
Reed does not have the housing role, with Labour continuing to split its shadowing of the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government between two MPs. Thangam Debbonaire has been named as shadow housing secretary.
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Health experts on Monday 6th April urged smokers to quit and cigarette companies to stop producing and selling tobacco products to help reduce the risks from COVID-19. “The best thing the tobacco industry can do to fight COVID-19 is to immediately stop producing, marketing and selling tobacco,” Gan Quan, a public health specialist and a director at the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease, said in a statement.
The group, which links international respiratory and lung specialists, officials and health agencies said it is “deeply concerned” about COVID-19’s impact on the world’s 1.3 billion smokers, in particular those in poorer countries whose health systems are already overburdened. Smoking is known to weaken the immune system, making it less able to respond effectively to infections. Smokers may also already have lung disease or reduced lung capacity which would greatly increase the risk of serious illness.
Quan said governments around the world had a “moral imperative” to advise smokers to stop. “This is the absolute best time to quit smoking,” Quan said. The Union’s statement cited emerging evidence from preliminary studies of COVID-19 patients in China and elsewhere that suggest smokers infected with the new coronavirus become more severely ill and suffer more serious complications such as breathing difficulties.
Source: Reuters, 6 April 2020
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