My Swansea office is now painted in solidarity with Ukraine: a dragon on a landscape with a Ukrainian sun rising behind & sun flowers - to support Ukraine against Putin’s invasion and for hope for peace. APRIL 2022 REPORT Report Inside
Stop privatisation & slave labour procurement in NHS This month, Geraint Davies MP spoke in the debate on the Lords Amendment for the Health and Care Bill, stating “It is, of course, 125 years since the birth of Aneurin Bevan, who famously said: “Illness is…a misfortune the cost of which should be shared by the community”. “That cost, as the right hon. Member for Chingford and Woodford Green (Sir Iain Duncan Smith) said, should not be borne by the victims of genocide, abuse or slavery, so I support amendment 48 and, indeed, amendments (a) and (b). “I am the trade rapporteur of the Council of Europe in respect of safeguarding human rights, democracy and the rule of law. I very much hope that where there is abuse or slave labour, we pursue filtering out such imports from procurement in general. Curing illness should not be at the cost of creating illness and harm abroad. “Obviously we need security of supply. We have seen China use embargoes and trade sanctions against Australian wine and Lithuanian products, or whatever, so we need Toggle showing location of Column 917a safe supply, much of it home-grown, for when we face such a problem or a pandemic. I put it to the Minister that we need to look much more at generating production and procurement in the public sector. It is no good going to the pub landlord of the right hon. Member for West Suffolk (Matt Hancock) to get expensive PPE. We need both value for money and ethical sourcing. “Some of the proposals for integrated care boards involve corporations that have a vested interest. If we remove competitive tendering, waiting lists and costs would both go up. It is critical that we get value for money. “Looking at what happened in Wales during the pandemic, we find that the cost of PPE was, in fact, half the cost of PPE in England. The £1.1 billion given to Wales for test and trace was a Barnett consequential, but we spent only half of that, £533 million, because we used public sector procurement and production effectively. “Through a combination of ethical procurement and public sector provision, we can keep the light of the health service shining, we can keep the faith and we can build a stronger, more successful and cost-effective health service.”
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Banning the right to ‘noisy’ protest in UK helps legitimise Putin’s oppression in Russia
Geraint Davies MP this month visited Lithuania as part of the InterParliamentary Alliance on China, as the war in Ukraine continues. Geraint said “It is clear that the UK must redouble it’s efforts to defend Ukraine, provide resilience for the Balkans, support refugees.” A part of the visit, Geraint also met with Lithuania Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė. Geraint Davies MP also spoke in the House of Commons on the Lords Amendment on the Police, Crime, Sentancing and Courts Bill stating “I have just come back from Lithuania. Hundreds of women have escaped to there, having lost their democracy as a result of Putin’s bombing and his oppressing his people at home. At the same time, we have a situation in Hong Kong where democracy is being taken away. Yet here we are taking away the right to peaceful protest, which has given us the suffragettes, climate change activists, peace campaigners and trade unions. This horrific bit of legislation will completely undermine the right of trade unionists to picket, at a difficult time in our economic evolution; it is purely terrible and it should not be brought forward. It is completely unnecessary, it will be very damaging to trade union relationships and it will drive protests underground, which, taken alongside the right for covert intelligence agents to act above the law, may lead to unintended consequences and will put the public at risk. Democracy and our public are at risk from this dreadful Bill, and it should be reversed as quickly as possible.”
As part of the Lithuanian visit I met with MPs and Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė
In Lithuanian refugee centres families have biometric tests and are allocated to families and kindergarten and jobs in hours not months. I’ve told Priti Patel and she said what about the cost to nhs and education!
Good to meet Ukrainian MPs with Yvette Cooper to underline Wales is a nation of sanctuary which opens its hearts and homes to refugees
Congratulations to Swansea’s Rocio Cifuentes our new Children’s Commissioner (formally Ethnic Youth Support Team).
GERAINT LEADS CALL FOR MORE ACTION ON AIR QUALITY TARGETS Air Quality News editor Chloe Coules this month spoke to Geraint Davies MP about the UK’s proposed air quality targets, preventing an increase in domestic burning as fuel poverty rises, and becoming a global leader on air pollution. Through his role as Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Air Pollution, Geraint Davies has been championing air quality in parliament for many years. ‘The UK Government proposal that we only aim for PM2.5 target of 10ug/m3 at a few official monitors between 2037-2040 represents an early death sentence for tens of thousands of people caught in a toxic urban environment. ‘We know that a PM2.5 target of 10ug/m3 by 2030 is achievable if we take decisive action on monitoring and reversing the growth of wood-burning stoves, that air pollution costs 62,000 deaths and £20 billion a year. Full article attached.
Welsh Labour MP calls for action on ‘dirty’ Chinese steel to ‘protect jobs and the planet’
Labour MP Geraint Davies has called for a carbon border tax in the UK so that “Chinese dirty steel” will not “undercut our steel”. Wales’ Port Talbot Steelworks is one of the largest in Europe and produces nearly 5 million tonnes of steel slab per annum. But speaking in the House of Commons, Swansea West MP Geraint Davies called International Trade Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan’s attention to the fact that steel produced with less stringent carbon restrictions in China could be sold more cheaply than that produced in the UK.
LET’S MAKE OUR LABOUR CANDIDATES COUNCILLORS ON MAY 5TH We have a great team of council candidates across Swansea West to win again in Castle Townhill and Cockett and let’s give special support to Uplands, Sketty and Killay & Dunvant where we have a tough fight with Lib Dems Tories and independents. Let’s not forget Wendy Lewis needs a hand in Waunarlydd too! Our Swansea Labour Councillors have done a great job and special thanks to Jennifer Raynor, Nick Davies and Mary Sherwood who are stepping down after serving our communities so well. We’ve been campaigning over the months and this last few days will be crucial so please contact our organiser Jack Dunne jackwdunne@hotmail.com Let’s ensure our Labour Council is re-elected to continue to deliver a stronger, greener fairer future for all despite the pressures we face due to the Tory UK Government.
Geraint supporting candidates in Castle, Mayals and Sketty - our sketty team has a record-breaking contact rate
Great to attend launch of Dunvant & Killay campaign with our superb candidates at Dunvant Rugby Club
We have a fantastic Uplands team who need and deserve all our support
GERAINT SPEAKS AT STAND UP TO RACISM RALLY Geraint recently spoke at the Stand Up To Racism rally in Cardiff, highlighting Labour’s proud history of supporting refugees and Swansea being a city of sanctuary.
THE PRIME MINISTER & THE CHANCELLOR MUST RESIGN Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak should resign for persistently breaking the laws they decided and enforced upon others. The Prime Minister has denied responsibility and essentially lied about the breaking of his own laws now seems to be claiming he was too busy to notice or should be above the law. He is not and his actions undermine the rule of law itself. His claim that he is busy sorting out other big problems is irrelevant but in fact, he has failed the country in this respect too. Under the leadership of Johnson and Sunak, the UK has suffered the worst recession in the G7, the highest excess death rate in Europe (2020), 3M self-employed left to rot and 506,000 fewer at work than before the pandemic. A Tory Brexit deal that will inflict twice the economic harm of Covid according to the Government Office for Budgetary Responsibility, Universal Credit cut and National Insurance increased as inflation hits a 30 year high. They allowed 170K Covid deaths and even tried to take top grades & meals from the poorest children in England. Therefore as lawbreakers, they should resign and as leaders, they have failed shamefully and transformed the UK into a weaker, more divided, more unequal and isolated country. The truth is that Boris Johnson thinks he is above the law. He is not and should resign. However, his future is in the hands of Tory MPs. The question is whether they will support him or put the interests of the country first irrespective of what they see as their own self-interest.
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info@geraintdavies.org.uk @GeraintDaviesMP