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MY WEEKLY UPDATE

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John, on Tuesday the Prime Minister announced his
decision to abolish one of the best performing and most important
departments, the Department for International Development (DfID), a
department that is crucial to global vaccine development, provides
healthcare and helps the world’s poorest.

To scrap a department during a global pandemic without first speaking to
his Secretary of State, and without consulting his cabinet or the
development sector is not only reckless, but irresponsible and wrong. It is
the wrong decision at the wrong time by a Prime Minister who wants to
deflect attention away from his failings in his handling of the coronavirus
pandemic.

DfID is a world leader in providing life-changing and life-saving support
to millions of people around the world. It is consistently rated as the
most effective, transparent department at delivering real value for money
for British taxpayers.

The government should be completely focused on steering our country through
the challenges we face right now. We have had one of the highest death
tolls from Covid-19 in the world, millions of children are out of school
and we face the worst unemployment crisis in a generation.

Yet, the Prime Minister has decided to undertake a large-scale restructure
costing millions of pounds of public money and instead, UK aid will be
spent through departments which the TaxPayers’ Alliance found “neither
contribute to poverty reduction or the national interest".

This retreat from the global stage is a mistake and I firmly oppose this
attempt to abolish the department. It will not only have a life-threatening
impact on the world’s poorest and most vulnerable people, but it will
reduce our ability to make the world safer, fairer and better for all.

MY REACTION TO THE PM'S DECISION [4]

KEIR'S REACTION TO THE PM'S DECISION [5]

FREE SCHOOL MEALS WIN

After pressure from Marcus Rashford, campaigners and Labour MPs and
members, the government finally reversed their decision on free school
meals and will now fund them over the summer.

I want to say a huge thank you to Marcus and everyone who campaigned on
this. This is a victory for the 1.3 million children, including the 4,400
childen in my constituency, who were at risk of going hungry this summer.

LETTER TO EDUCATION SECRETARY

SCHOOL IT APPEAL LAUNCHED

One third of children live in poverty across Birmingham and we risk cutting
off countless vulnerable individuals and families because of inadequate
connectivity.

Today we learnt that only half of the laptops promised to disadvantaged
children two months ago by the government have been DELIVERED [6].

This crisis threatens to exacerbate inequalities and widen the digital
divide already present in our City.

An appeal has been launched for IT donations to help pupils in Birmingham
whose education has been affected by the coronavirus lockdown.

You can find out more about the appeal and how you can help, by clicking
below.

SCHOOL IT APPEAL [7]

CALLS FOR BACK TO WORK BUDGET FOR THE WEST MIDLANDS

Analysis of new labour market data from the ONS this week shows the scale
of the economic challenge facing the West Midlands, as claimants for
Universal Credit and other unemployment benefits rose by almost 100% to
more than 275,000.

Although an imperfect measure of unemployment, these figures show a
severely strained jobs market and show that the government cannot afford to
delay its next full budget until after the summer. They must urgently bring
forward a Back to Work Budget to protect jobs and livelihoods here in the
West Midlands.

EXPRESS & STAR ARTICLE [8]

IN CONVERSATION WITH...

Yesterday, I sat down with Sienna Rodgers of LabourList to talk all things
international development. We covered a lot of topics including the
importance of DfID, my priorities for the role, and of course the events of
this week before taking questions from readers.

You can watch again by clicking the button below.

LABOURLIST INTERVIEW [9]

© 2020 Printed from an email sent by Preet Kaur Gill. Promoted by A.J Webb
on behalf of Preet Kaur Gill, both at 56 Wentworth Road, B17 9TA.

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