Watch: Barry speaks & writes to Home Secretary regarding Windrush Comepnsation Scheme

Barry has written to Priti Patel, the Home Secretary regarding the Windrush Compensation Scheme. It is unacceptable that only 5% of victims of the Windrush scandal have received any sort of compensation.

In Barry’s letter, he references a constituent who has lived in the UK for 58 years and has incurred direct losses amounting to £37,165.33. These are all directly attributable to the failure of the Home Office to recognise his status as a British Citizen and his right to work in the UK. He is still yet to receive a penny in compensation.

My constituent has suffered enough. Sign the Windrush petition now: https://t.co/qpziOk7AIB pic.twitter.com/lW35bPH4Lv

— Barry Gardiner (@BarryGardiner) June 22, 2020

The Government should feel deeply ashamed as the 3rd anniversary of the Grenfell Tower tragedy approaches

Barry has written to the Housing secretary, Robert Jenrick as the 3rd anniversary of the Grenfell Tower approaches.

Across the UK, 20,000 – 23,700 households across the country are still living in unsafe buildings. According to government building safety data for March this year, 6500 of these are in the social sector and between 13,500 and 17,200 households in private sector residential blocks.

In Barry’s letter, he asked the Secretary of State to answer these questions:

• When the Government will commence work onsite with all the buildings identified as at risk?

• How much additional funding will be provided to enable these essential works to proceed?

• By what date does the Government expect all unsafe buildings to be fully remediated now the June 2020 deadline has passed?

• What further steps the Government plans to accelerate the pace of the remediation?

• What discussions have taken place with building owners, insurance companies and warranty providers.

• On the 28th April you gave a commitment to Parliament that help would be available to leaseholders faced with waking watch costs and fire remediation work; please update me on the progress of this assistance package?

In Barry’s letter he also refers to the Government advice for Leaseholders/Advice Note 14.

The government needs urgently to speak with surveyors and mortgage lenders to overcome the issues Advice Note 14 has created and which is holding up the sale of thousands of homes.

Barry sought assurances that the Secretary will not promise further timelines for making homes safe until he has secured the necessary funding from the Treasury to ensure such promises can be met.

For the families in my Constituency, and across the Country, three years after the Grenfell tragedy when 72 people lost their lives, this is now of the utmost priority.

Barry writes to the Trade Secretary regarding the immediate suspension of export licenses to the US

Barry wrote to Liz Truss, the Secretary of State for International Trade and called on her to open an urgent investigation to establish whether any of the equipment supplied to the USA by the UK has been misused in the internal repression of the American civilian population.

Until the conclusion of such an investigation, Barry believes there is a moral and legal obligation to immediately suspend the export licenses of small arms, rubber bullets, tear gas and all other equipment which could be used for internal repression in the USA.

Barry signs joint-letter stating economic response to the crisis must be in line with global sustainability goals

Barry signed a joint letter-letter which was published in the Independent. You can read it below:

The coronavirus crisis has prompted the biggest state intervention in the market in history. Around the world governments have earmarked more than $8tn (£6.4bn) in a bid to keep the global economy moving. The spread of the pandemic has shown the strength of investing in companies putting people and planet first. Green stocks have outperformed others by almost 8 per cent since the start of the crisis.

As world leaders look to the economic recovery, short-term carbon-intensive solutions are not the answer. Instead creating an economy where resources are only used if they are 100 per cent recyclable or reusable represents our best route to a better future.

Indeed, the European Commission estimates investing in a circular economy could create some 700,000 jobs by 2030 in Europe alone, invigorating sectors that will deliver long-term prosperity without trashing our natural world. A real circular economy could once and for all realise the vision of a world free from the connected problems of runaway climate change and the global-waste crisis.

Now more than ever before the future belongs to companies that work with nature, not against it. The economic response to the crisis must be executed in line with our global sustainability goals and put green stimulus measures front and centre.

Lucy Siegle, chair of the Real Circularity Coalition
George Monbiot, author and environmental activist
Alviina Alametsa MEP, Finland
Ernest Urtasun MEP, Spain
Prof Jeremy Faludi, department of design engineering, Delft University of Technology, Netherlands
Prof James Elliott, materials science & metallurgy, University of Cambridge
Prof Raimund Bleischwitz, director, The Bartlett School of Environment Energy & Resource
Dr Nick Taylor Buck, faculty of science research manager, University of Sheffield
Bella Lack, ambassador, Born Free Foundation
Julie Anderson, global CEO, Plastics Oceans International, USA
Hugo Tagholm, chief executive, Surfers Against Sewage
Sally Uren, chief executive, Forum for the Future
Dr Becky Gates, founding director and trustee, Fidra
Caroline Lucas MP, Green, Brighton Pavilion
Barry Gardiner MP, Labour, Brent North
Ben Lake MP, Plaid Cymru, Ceredigion
Claire Hanna MP, Social Democrat and Labour, South Belfast
Claudia Beamish MSP, Scottish Labour, South Scotland
Prof Peter North, alternative economies, University of Liverpool
Dr Patrick Pomeroy, senior research scientist, school of biology, University of St Andrews
Ray Georgeson MBE, director, Ray Georgeson Resources
Prof Rupert Ormond, centre for marine biodiversity & biotechnology, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh
Dr Oliver Bragg, geography and environmental science, school of social sciences, University of Dundee
Neil Garrick-Maidment FBNA, founder, The Seahorse Trust
Baroness Bakewell of Hardington, Liberal Democrat
Baroness Lister of Burtersett, Labour
Baroness Walmsley, Liberal Democrat
Lord Grantchester, Labour
The Rt Hon Lord Naseby PC, Conservative

How Brent Council used dedicated coronavirus care home to stop residents infecting each other – Barry speaks to The Telegraph

Barry spoke to The Telegraph over the weekend regarding the work Brent Council have been doing despite Government inaction on care homes. Brent Council ensured they spent £1.5 million PPE in February before the height of the pandemic. As well as this Brent Council ensured elderly patients discharged from hospital were quarantined in a separate care facility and not put back into care homes with residents who hadn’t contracted Covid-19

There have been over 10,000 care home deaths across the U.K. from Covid-19, Brent Council has one of the lowest rates and as Barry outlined, their swift and decisive action almost certainly saved many lives.

The article is behind a paywall but you can take up a free trial to read it in its entirety here https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/05/23/brent-council-used-dedicated-coronavirus-care-home-stop-residents/

Barry writes an article in LabourList on the upcoming Trade Bill

Barry wrote an article in LabourList regarding the upcoming Trade Bill. You can read Barry’s article at https://labourlist.org/2020/05/the-tory-trade-bill-threatens-parliamentary-sovereignty/.

As a former shadow Secretary of State for International Trade, Barry knows only too well the numerous concerns that this Bill propagates. Concerns such as our rights and liberties, our labour standards, environmental protections, food safety regulations, animal welfare laws and the capacity of our public services to continue to operate in the public sector.

To bring it back at this time of crisis – knowing that in normal times it would engender considerable public concerns – is inexcusable. If this bill goes through unamended, the government will have afforded itself unchecked powers to lock the UK into binding obligations under international law that may profoundly impact upon each of these areas. Parliament would have no say.

Heating our homes – a word in the business chairperson’s ear – Barry writes for LabourList

Barry wrote an article for LabourList  before the election of the Chair of the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Select Committee as a word in their ear.

Barry wrote about how we have to think differently about heating our homes and energy efficiency. The article can be read in its entirety at the following link.

https://labourlist.org/2020/05/heating-our-homes-a-word-in-the-business-chairpersons-ear/

Barry writes an open letter to Dominic Raab published in Eastern Eye

Below you can read Barry’s open letter to the First Secretary of State, published in Eastern Eye. Barry identifies that Covid-19 is disproportionally affecting ethnic minorities and poor people. Indeed, Brent North which has in some ways been the epicentre of the pandemic in the UK is also in the most diverse borough in the country.

Barry thanks the NHS

Barry joined with other North West London MPs to record a special message for those current working against the Covid-19 pandemic.

Barry meets Finnish Minister in Parliament

Barry recently sat down recently with his Shadow International Trade colleague, Bill Esterson to meet Ville Skinnari, Minister for Development Cooperation and Foreign Trade for the Finnish Social Democrats. 

Both team’s delegations discussed the current issues in international trade and our common interests as well as their shared approaches to international trade and the underpinning of rules between both countries.