GERAINT DAVIES MP
WELSH LABOUR & CO-OPERATIVE MP MAKING A DIFFERENCE FOR SWANSEA WEST O Abertawe ac yn gweithio dros Abertawe
IN SWANSEA & PARLIAMENT O Abertawe dros Abertawe
March 2021 Report Report Inside
JOHNSON PLAYS RUSSIAN ROULETT FORCES STRIKE AT DVLA This month I sought to continue to pile on pressure on Johnson during Prime Government’s disastrous handling of the issues at the DVLA.
Staff at the DVLA headquarters have voted for a four day strike from the 6t handling of the coronavirus outbreak in the headquarters and lack of suppor continued to raise the need for more home working and social distancing measures
Speaking at Prime Ministers Questions, I asked Johnson, “There have now been mor rus infection at the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency in Swansea since Septemb meet the Public and Commercial Services Union to discuss ways in which more wo in safety before they are vaccinated. “Workers have now resorted to voting for strike action, as a last resort, to protect their families and communities. I ask the Prime Minister again: will he now instruct Ministers to engage in talks with the union to help shield vulnerable workers before vaccination, or will he force a needless strike?”
A 5% nurses pay increase would cost £330m per year after tax paid on income & co i.e. less than one day of the £350m promised to the NHS on Johnson’s Bre @GeraintDaviesMP
WELSH GOVERNMENT SHOWCASES A BETTER UK FUTURE WITH LABOUR Geraint paid tribute to the late Hywel Francis MP during the St. Davids debate saying: “Diolch yn fawr iawn, Mr Deputy Speaker. Prynhawn da and I wish you a happy St David’s Day debate. “I, too, send my condolences, and pay my respect to the late, great and lovely Professor Hywel Francis, who did so much for the Welsh Affairs Committee and
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TE & Minister Questions over the
th of April, due to the misrt for those workers. I have to protect workers.
ore than 600 cases of coronaviber, yet Ministers still refuse to orkers could work from home
LIVERPOOL FREEPOST COULD SAP INVESTMENT FROM WALES Geraint Davies MP this month questioned the Welsh Secretary on freeports. “A freeport at Liverpool will sap and displace trade, investment and jobs from Holyhead in north Wales. Liverpool will get £26 million of investment, whereas we are only being offered £8 million for one UK freeport in either north or south Wales. How will the Secretary of State ensure that Wales gets its fair share of £26 million for its one UK freeport, and how will he prevent jobs being lost and moving from north Wales to Liverpool?”
GERAINT ARGUES FOR SWANSEA TO GET ITS FAIR SHARE
onsumer spending exit bus.
the Human Rights Committee, and fought with me to get David Cameron to commit to the electrification of the railway to Swansea—a promise yet to be fulfilled. Gorau arf, arf dysg: the best weapon is the weapon of knowledge, as Hywel would say.” Full speech sent via email
Geraint Davies MP raised the inequity of infrastructure investment this month: “Wales has 5% of the population but it has had only 2% of the railway enhancement investment over decades, and it has the lowest household income. Given that HS2 will not pass through Wales, will the Minister and the Treasury look very carefully at providing a high-speed rail link between Bristol, Cardiff, Swansea and beyond—over 3 million people live there—in line with the Burns review, to help the agenda for levelling up and connecting the Union, and to give us our fair share of rail investment based on need?”
BREXIT VOTERS BETRAYED, NATIONALISM ISN’T WORKING Speaking on St. Patrick’s Day SNP debate on Brexit, I said:- “A very happy St Patrick’s Day to you, Madam Deputy Speaker. I will not say it in Welsh, even though St Patrick was Welsh and was born near to me in Neath Port Talbot in Banwen. “I have a lot of sympathy for this motion, partly because it does not mention independence. It sets out the predictable disaster that Brexit has been, which has been made so much worse by an appalling Tory deal. I am acutely aware of the strange irony of having nationalists against nationalism, both in the case of the SNP, which opposed Brexit, yet want to break up Britain—I suppose that it will be breaking up Scotland next—and that of the Tory nationalists, who wanted to break away from the EU but do not want to break away from Scotland. I am an internationalist and want to see us together as one Union and in closer alignment with the EU. “The simple fact is that the Budget confirms—as the Office for Budget Responsibility said—that the appalling Brexit that has been negotiated will cut our economy by some 4%, which equates to about 1.4 million jobs lost according to the Office for National Statistics. That will cost everybody in this country about £1,300, so it will cost a family of four about £5,000. That is not as much as would be lost by Scottish independence, as confirmed by the London School of Economics, but we are here to talk about Brexit. “The people who voted for Brexit, many of whom I represent, presented good ideas of wanting more jobs, more money and more control. That is what they were promised. There is nothing wrong with wanting those things. The problem is that they did not get them. They were promised an “oven-ready” Brexit, but the oven was turned off during lockdown and the pandemic. The Welsh and Scottish First Ministers both wrote to the Prime Minister in June and September to say, “Why do we not extend the transition period, because we will lose preparedness and negotiation time? And if we are Brexiting, let’s get the best Brexit.” Stupidly, of course—the Welsh First Minister recently said he was “baffled” by this—the Toggle showing location of Government and the Prime Minister decided that they would go ahead, and look where we have ended up. We have massive reductions in our exports. There will be impairments to our imports from April, so instead, the Prime Minister delivered a half-filled sack on Christmas eve with no services inside,
despite the fact that 42% of our exports to the EU are services. We have ended up just saying, “Let’s have more deals under the comprehensive and progressive trans-Pacific partnership”, but the Japanese one is worth £1.6 billion when it would have been worth £2.6 billion through the EU. “In summary, I am a man who wants to see us as four nations, in closer alignment to the EU, and the Government not to hide the problems of Brexit through covid, and, incidentally, not to stop people marching—if they do eventually want to resume membership—through the awful Bill banning protest yesterday. Let’s stay together.”
A BUDGET THAT INCREASES INEQUALITY AND FAILS TO PROVIDE INCLUSIVE GROWTH My speech opposing Tories Budget:- “The Chancellor failed to mention that, with 123,000 deaths, the UK has the highest coronavirus death rate in the world and the deepest recession of the G7. He also failed to mention the bungled Brexit that has led to a two-thirds cut in our exports since the new year. The Budget simply continues to increase inequality, which will itself reduce the rate of growth. Although it pumps money into the economy, it will mean council tax rises, pay freezes for public sector workers, benefit squeezes and service cuts, all of which will further increase inequality. “What we need is a healthier, fairer, greener future. In Labour-run Wales, we have seen the Government using their money where it is most needed, not to support council tax relief for food superstores, which are making exceptional profits, and not for stamp duty for people buying second homes for their holidays. Instead, we have a £2 billion resilience fund, and the Development Bank of Wales investing in small businesses to secure 141,000 jobs. This is successful devolution, but we do need the tools to do the job, and we only get 2% of the money for rail investment for 5% of the population. We need a high-speed link between Bristol, Cardiff, Swansea and west Wales to help connect the Union. We need the shared prosperity fund to be spent in Wales, for Wales and by Wales. We need the Swansea Bay tidal lagoon that was promised, and we need electrification of the railways. There is much that we need, but we are not getting our fair share and we did not hear anything about that in the Budget.We need a Labour Government to have inclusive growth and to balance the books, and we will not get one until the next election.”
DEFEND RIGHT TO PEACEFUL PROTEST & RECLAIM THE STREETS FROM FEAR My speech opposing Tory Police, Crime, Sentencing & Courts Bill:- “Our hearts are with the family and friends of Sarah Everard, and our thoughts with those who gathered in peace and solidarity to mourn her death, in a vigil that was so badly and aggressively handled, and into which we need an immediate inquiry. In its aftermath, this Bill is our opportunity to help women to reclaim the streets for good, turn back the tide of rapes, and replace fear with confidence. Instead, however, the Bill curtails our rights to peaceful protest and assembly. It gives harsher punishments for attacks on slave-owner monuments than for sexual violence against women. It persecutes our Roma and Gypsy communities, and it attacks our right to roam the countryside while giving rapists freedom to roam our streets; rape is up by 35%, and 99% of recorded rapes never go to court. “We need investment at scale in Nightingale courts, equipped with the latest DNA forensic testing technology, so that rapists can be charged, prosecuted and convicted in weeks, instead of victims living in fear for years, as this Bill allows. The Government should empower our citizens and communities, but instead they attack the rights of all of us to peaceful assembly and protest—trade unionists, EU remainers, climate change activists, anti-war protesters, and vote-at-16 enthusiasts. They are curtailing the freedom of expression that feeds a healthy, responsive democracy. That will drive protest underground, generating heat in place of light. “This Trojan horse Bill may display popular measures on dangerous driving, protecting protectors and Lammy reforms, and I am sure that in Committee, Labour will support those few crumbs of goodness beside the poison chalice that this Bill represents. This thoroughly rotten Bill needs to be rejected and recast in the next Queen’s Speech. It fails to reclaim our streets from the grip of fear; and amid a pandemic, a recession, and the serial abuse of women on our streets, it constitutes an attack on our fundamental values, our democracy, our freedom, and the very laws that protect those things. We should reject the Bill.”
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info@geraintdavies.org.uk @GeraintDaviesMP