22nd of May is a difficult day for many of us here in Greater Manchester, this year marks the third anniversary of the Manchester Arena bombing. 22 innocent lives were taken from us far too soon.

Today my thoughts are with the family and friends of those 22, all those who were injured, and the countless others who were deeply affected by the attack. Our thanks must always go to the police, fire and ambulance services who were first onto the scene.

In particular I’m thinking of Alison Howe and Lisa Lees, two mums from Royton who didn’t return home that night. The above image was taken at an event that Alison and Lisa’s families and friends held, it paid a wonderful tribute to them and it brought a grieving community together as one.

We must remember the amazing way in which our city came together in the weeks and months after that tragic attack, whenever I see a Worker Bee sticker on a car I’ll remember the spirit that got us through those difficult days.

Manchester Together. 22.05.17 🐝🐝

Yesterday marked the start of Mental Health Awareness week (18th-24th May 2020), and the theme for this year is kindness.

The Mental Health Foundation want to get the message out there to as many people as possible that kindness is good for our mental health and everyone around us.

The pandemic we’re in the middle of really does highlight how important our mental health is, spending most of your time inside your house and without seeing your friends and family is tough.

There has been some progress in the last few years and there is less stigma around talking about mental health issues but we still have more to do.

This afternoon I asked Transport Ministers whether they would publish the evidence that suggests personal protective equipment and a change in cash handling procedures would not help save the lives of our frontline transport workers.

It cannot be right that bus drivers are at a greater risk of dying from Covid-19 than the general population are. Government should publish the scientific advice as soon as possible so it can recieve proper scrutiny.

It really cannot be said enough times how damaging under-funding in local government is, if ministers do backtrack on their word and leave councils across England with a £10bn black hole it will require catastrophic cuts.

For the last ten years councils have been the front line, delivering vital public services that people rely on and that trend has continued in the last two months whilst we have been fighting against the coronavirus. It is local councils that have been doing everything they could on the ground to tackle coronavirus in their communities.

Here in Oldham, it is the council that have been organising in partnership with groups like Action Together to ensure that vulnerable people can still get the food and supplies that they need whilst they have no other access to it. Without the council the foodbank’s distribution hub at the Oldham Leisure Centre would not have been possible.

And the government knows that it hasn’t been easy, and government knows that it promised ‘whatever funding is needed for councils to get through this and come out the other side.’ Oldham Council estimate that their response could cost up to £46million, so far from government have promised to reimburse just £14m of that. When you take into account that Oldham council has lost over £200m in funding since 2010, you have to wonder how government thinks that councils will manage.

If councils are forced to make cuts it’ll be those key workers that we clap for every Thursday who are hit hardest, if government breaks its funding pledge to communities some of them would face losing their jobs.

Local authorities are the biggest funders of social care in England, and analysis done by the Labour Party shows that the cuts councils may be forced to make would be the equivalent of 225,000 vulnerable people losing the support which they usually rely on. A £10bn Coronavirus black hole could mean that across England, £3.5bn is cut from adult social care, £2bn cut from children’s social care and a £700m cut to local public health.

It’s not just social care where the cuts would be felt, there’d be funding gaps in other already stretched public services, including libraries, children’s centres, leisure centres, public parks, road safety and neighbourhood services.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/may/14/councils-in-england-fear-they-will-have-to-make-cuts-of-20

Earlier this afternoon I made my dispatch box debut as Labour’s Shadow Transport Secretary in responding to Grant Shapps’ statement on the Covid-19 guidance for transport users and operators that his department had published.

I am grateful for the positive and on-going communication that myself and the Secretary of State have had over the last month, it is right that where we can we work constructively together in the national interest.

And I know that everyone across the UK is grateful for the hard work that our transport workers have put in since lockdown began, to ensure that our country keeps going, that people can move around when they need to and that goods can get where they need to be.

With our thanks to these key-workers we must also give them a voice, so that is why I asked the Secretary of State;
• Why his announcement wasn’t made before the Prime Minister’s statement on Sunday? So that people were given more than 12 hours’ notice to return to work on Monday without the official guidance in place.
• What is the scientific basis for the governments position on PPE to frontline transport staff?
• What discussions have taken place to ensure co-operation across the four nations of the UK?
• Whether the £2bn he announced last week was new money or whether it’d been announced pre-lockdown back in February.
• Whether the government will publish the advice which justifies why France is to be exempt from the 14-day quarantine policy?
• And whether the government will publish the scientific advice that led to the quarantine policy not being changed earlier?

We urgently need a comprehensive plan for the transport sector. The public want the chaos around the exit plan to end. So the Transport Secretary should take a message back to the cabinet – no more confusion, no more reckless briefings and no more delay.

In this morning’s Times Red Box, I’ve written about how government needs to be much clearer with its message to commuters and the transport sector at large.

In the midst of a public health crisis government advice must be clear and coherent, and when we look at the bus sector that is simply not the case. Government should have issued guidelines weeks ago to keep these vital key workers safe.

We must all work together to keep each other safe, but we need to hear more from government on the vital role transport will play and how it will secure the financial future of the sector so we can get people moving again.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/…/commuters-will-need-to-mind-th…

The coronavirus has fundamentally changed our way of life, not just in the short term but how we live. We owe our transport workers and other key workers a great debt, they have kept the country moving in the most difficult of circumstances.

But thanks and praise are not enough; we also need the Government to come up with a realistic plan of what life outside the lockdown looks like.

Clearly, public health is paramount. We must be led by the science, but that advice must be transparent so we can test the political decisions that flow from it. If the evidence shows that social distancing is the right way forward at least in the medium term, as it surely is, then the Government must ensure our public transport services get the financial support they need to continue to operate. Each sector will be different, but they will share a common challenge; keeping services running and keeping afloat, while keeping people safe.

For example, the Government isn’t providing anywhere near enough support for locally owned and operated metro, Underground and light rail networks. Councils are crying out for a more substantial package to make up for the losses they are incurring. And we have to ensure that money doesn’t go into the pockets of shareholders, but is put back in to the running of these services.

 Labour called for the lockdown and we continue to support it. But the Government has not always provided clear, accurate and timely guidance.

Take buses as an example. The fact that different operators have diverging views on the best approach is confusing. It is imperative that the Government publishes and publicises clear guidance for operators, Mayors and drivers. It should provide answers to key questions, such as whether drivers should be handling cash, whether deposit boxes should be installed to receive coins, or whether there should now be a total ban on using cash on buses completely. We need to know if drivers and support staff should be issued with gloves, masks, and other PPE items as standard and, if so, what specification this PPE should be and how it will be distributed to the frontline quickly and efficiently.

On our trains and light rail services, the Government must be clear about the kind of social distancing needed and how any staggered usage would work in practice. If this happens then we need to know whether there should be different charges for peak and off peak, or if this would just incentivise too many people to take the first train after the peak, or whether peak time restrictions should be suspended completely.

It seems clear that the fragmentation of our rail and bus networks has exacerbated the problem, hindering the flow of information from the Government down to drivers, and from the frontline back up to officials and ministers. Labour has proposed a national operators’ forum consisting of Government ministers, operators, and unions.

We are living through unprecedented and challenging times. The onus is on all of us to keep each other safe. But as we emerge from the lockdown, however slowly, we need to hear more from the Government about the vital role transport will play and how it will put the sector back on a secure financial footing so we can get people and our country moving again.

Today marks 75 years since the end of the Second World War in Europe. Today is Victory in Europe Day.

On the 8th of May 1945 the Allies accepted Nazi Germany’s unconditional surrender. It was a time where many across Europe celebrated peace at last. In the UK millions of people took to the streets in jubilation that after nearly six years of war the battle was nearly over.

We must not forget the horrors of Nazism, and the millions of innocent people murdered. The Holocaust remains the gravest human rights abuse in the history of mankind, and we must never allow anything like that to happen again.

We must remember those who went to fight in this war for us and celebrate their contribution. As much as people were celebrating the end of the war back in 1945, they were celebrating that they were finally able to look forward to a peaceful life and to rebuilding after so many years of devastation.

Under usual circumstances we would be celebrating today in a similar manner, when I was a kid, I remember the street parties we used to have. Where neighbours would hang out bunting and Union flags, we would enjoy food and each other’s company.

But you know as well as I do that today can’t be celebrated like a normal VE Day, Covid-19 and the pandemic we face means we must change the way we celebrate. I’m sure up and down Oldham, Chadderton and Royton there’ll be some inventive ways of celebrating VE Day as a community together whilst remaining sensible.

Whether it’s just by putting a poster that you found online up in the window, or it’s sitting down and making one with the kids to display. Or you might even be holding a virtual street party with your neighbours and friends.

Whatever it is that you’re doing to mark VE Day, let’s reflect and remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice and those who returned home as heroes, so that we can live in peace today and enjoy the life that we do.

Let us remember our generational responsibility to commit to a world of peace, unity and harmony.

We’ll meet again

On the 28th of April every year we commemorate International Workers’ Memorial Day, we come together to remember those who have died in the workplace. The theme for #IWMD20 is ‘Stop the Pandemic in the Workplace.’ 

This year is especially pertinent for many of us as the risk that many of our key front line workers are putting themselves in is greater than anytime in most of our lifetimes. The fight against this virus has shown that workers rights and health & safety in the workplace are critical to health and safety of our country, but too many workers are still working in situations where they don’t have the proper Personal Protective Equipment or without vital safety measures in place. 

The Coronavirus has meant that we are all working in unique and sometimes uncomfortable circumstances, it has affected every single worker in this country one way or another. Not only is the pandemic having a major impact on our working conditions, it is also taking its toll on our physical well-being and our mental-health too, causing people to worry about theirs and their family’s health and financial wellbeing.

At 11am today let us fall silent for those who have lost their lives at work and those who have died from work-related injuries. 

It will be a moment where we can pay tribute to the workers who have sadly lost their lives as a result of Covid-19 and pay thanks to those who continue to work at great risk to themselves and their family. 

Let us remember the tens of thousands of workers worldwide who have died, the thousands more who have fallen ill, and the millions more who continue to go to work. Let us renew our efforts to organise collectively to prevent injuries, disease and deaths as a result of work.

We remember those we have lost. We organise in their memory.