MP’S REPORT TO 

RESIDENTS: APRIL 2020

I provide regular updates on my work to local residents.

You can find previous reports of my work on my web site;
www.ruthcadbury.co.uk [1] I also report regularly on my Facebook page [2]
and via Twitter [3] and Instagram @RuthCadbury [4]. You can see full
details of my questions and speeches in Parliament, and get Regular updates
about my Parliamentary activities on TheyWorkForYou [5]in Hansard [6]and on
YouTube [7]

SEE MY SPECIAL CORONAVIRUS WEB-PAGE [8] FOR INFORMATION ON

LOCAL AND NATIONAL SERVICES, HELP-LINES AND VOLUNTEERING;

 AND TO SIGN UP FOR HOUNSLOW COUNCIL’S DAILY UPDATES.

COVID19 CORONAVIRUS

Since my last report a month ago, the world, and our lives, have changed
beyond recognition. Most of us are confined to home, but others are heading
into work in essential services; many are worried about loved ones, and too
many don’t know what they are going to live on once the last pay cheque
is spent.

Parliament has shut down and I and my team are all now working from home.

Like all MPs and their staff, we are inundated with calls and emails from
constituents with a host of pressing problems, generally raised with us
because the Government announcements don’t address their situation, or
promised action hasn’t materialised.

The two most frequent issues coming in to me have been; self-employed
people for whom the Government announcements are no help, and constituents
who are stuck abroad.

* There are probably over 10,000 self-employed people in this
constituency. I supported the call for a temporary universal basic income
for self-employed people. I am glad the government introduced some support,
however I still have concerns about the details, and for those who are
excluded from the various schemes. I have written to the Chancellor again
about this.
* Many constituents are stuck abroad with dwindling supplies of money and
medicines and no certainty as to how they will get home. We have helped and
advised dozens of UK citizens trapped abroad and I am asking Foreign Office
Ministers to urge the UK Government to do more.
* Other issues also coming in include; the cancelling of cancer
treatment, evictions by frightened landlords, and the inability to get food
and essential medicines to name a few.

In trying to best help my constituents I have talked to Hounslow
Councillors and senior officers, to the local hospital and community care
trusts, those managing residential care homes, local business
organisations, the foodbanks and many others. I’ve been on on-line calls
with Labour’s key front bench teams, ensuring they are aware of what’s
happening here, and learning how they are successfully pushing the
Government to go further and address problems that Ministers clearly
hadn’t thought through. Every day there is new information, and new
challenges.

Our ability to scrutinise Government has been undermined now we are in a
long Parliamentary Recess. That is why I have joined the call to get a form
of Parliamentary scrutiny up and running as soon as possible. Meanwhile, I
can use my role as a community representative to link need with support,
publicise local information, and raise issues with the Government and local
public services. PLEASE KEEP IN TOUCH!

I share the gratitude of all of us for those in essential services; not
only in the NHS, but also those in the care, food, charity, delivery,
utilities and transport sectors, and the emergency services.

WE THANK THEM ALL!

The loss of work, and access to normal health care and day-to-day needs
will be devastating for many, and they will need the support of the rest of
us in the days and weeks to come. If you can volunteer, please do. If you
can spare money to hard-pressed charities – then please do that too. Many
vital charities may not survive the loss of income as normal charitable
giving collapses. And now there will be the exponential growth in demand
for some such as foodbanks, advice and information services and domestic
violence charities. IF YOU CAN – PLEASE GIVE GENEROUSLY OF YOUR TIME OR
YOUR MONEY!!

CONTACTING ME AND MY TEAM

Please email me [email protected] or call 020 856 3646 or 020 7219
8590 between 10am - 2pm weekdays and we will do our very best to assist. Do
leave a clear message if we cannot answer and also do include your full
contact details (& any relevant reference numbers eg DWP. Home Office,
and/or my ZA… reference if we’ve responded on the same issue with you
before)

Until the Commons rose, I was busy in Parliament (keeping physical distance
from others!)

From the first week of March I have been challenging the Government on
their response to the coronavirus crisis;

* On the need for more NHS clinical staff to be recruited urgently due to
COVID-19
* Seeking assurances that staff in Community settings will be issued with
PPE
* Challenging the Chancellor to temporarily increase Child Benefit; and
lift the benefit cap and two child limit on Universal Credit
* Explaining to the Health Secretary that the script for 111
call-handlers was not updated for at least 3 hours after new Government
announcements, exactly the time when people needed to know the detail
behind any announced changes
* Urging the Health Secretary to ensure that women can access abortion
services at home during lock-down, as recommended by reputable clinicians
and as outlined in Government regulations that were rescinded within hours
of being published. I am glad the Government finally retained their initial
policy, so that the estimated 44,000 women who will need abortions over
next 3 months will be able to obtain them without putting themselves or
doctors at unnecessary risk

I am also glad that, following my question in the House on 11 February
about an elderly Chinese woman who was visiting her family here, the
Government subsequently extended the visas of non-UK citizens who cannot
return to their home countries until the crisis is over

[9]

SCRIPTS FOR 111

[10]

COVID-19 AND COUNCIL RENTS

Not all of March in Parliament was taken up with the Coronavirus response.
On other topics (some of which now seem like a distant memory):

* I demanded that the Government fund the repair of Hammersmith Bridge
* I asked International Trade ministers for greater investment & support
for high tech industry after we leave the EU
* I explained, in a debate on Post Offices, how we have no Post Office in
Brentford and that the future of Chiswick’s counter appeared to be in
doubt. I called on greater joined-up work between Government and the Post
Office to ensure there was reasonable coverage across our communities
* In a debate on political neutrality in schools, I urged the Government
to include Climate Change in the school curriculum
* In the debate on the Budget, I demanded long term investment in public
services including the NHS and Education- and to support the local services
that address serious crime, as well as to ensure the dangerous cladding on
flats was properly rectified.
* I co-sponsored a debate on the appalling Loan Charge; describing the
impact it has had on constituents who are contractors, and called on
Government to end the retrospective and punitive nature of the Loan Charge

I launched the all-party group on PANS/PANDAS; a devastating and frequently
undiagnosed syndrome in children following an autoimmune reaction in the
brain to an infection. It causes, virtually overnight, severe anxiety, OCD,
tics and a host of other neurological symptoms – when early diagnosis and
simple antibiotics can address much of the illness before long-term damage
sets in.

[11]

LOAN CHARGE DEBATE

[12]

POST OFFICE NETWORK

LABOUR LEADERSHIP I am delighted that my colleague who launched my 2019
election campaign, KEIR STARMER, has been elected as the new leader of the
Labour Party! I welcomed his first statement following the result where he
committed to change the party to regain the trust we have lost,
particularly important in the long-standing Labour areas that voted
Conservative in December. And I also welcome his promise on anti-Semitism,
to tear “this poisonous growth out by its roots”.

COMMUNITY UPDATE – (BEFORE LOCK-DOWN!)

I was delighted to welcome Brentford School for Girls year 11 students to
Parliament, and to visit Chiswick Scouts at their Scout hut.

I hosted one my regular coffee morning at St Mary’s Church Hall in
Osterley, and celebrated International Women’s day with Konnie Huq
(former Blue Peter presenter) on her first ever Parkrun. She has teamed up
This Girl Can, a national organisation which encourages teenage girls to be
active.

I delivered 40 toilet rolls from my garden shed to Hounslow Community
Foodbox (we’re Costco shoppers!) And was able to get almost 140 science
lab goggles and glasses donated by Godolphin and Latymer School to care
home managers across Hounslow.

The last event I attended before being confined to home, was to support the
charity OPEN KITCHEN [13] launch their take-away and delivery service of
free hot meals to anyone in need from their base on the Great West Road in
Hounslow.

UNSUBSCRIBE [14]

Printed from an email sent my Ruth Cadbury MP 367 Chiswick High Road
London, LON W4 4AG
United Kingdom




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