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
SEPT 2021 REPORT Report Inside
GERAINT EXPOSES LINK BETWEEN TORY ELE AND US INSURRECTION CAUSED BY T
With the return of Parliament this month, the Conservatives sought to push thro would deny millions the right to vote.
Speaking in the House of Commons I stated “The Minister will be aware that loud c made by the Trump campaign in the United States, which were completely without which led to an assault on the Capitol building in Washington that suspended demo that as a Minister she should be promulgating an evidence-free claim that personation is a widespread problem that needs solving, with the cost being to deny millions of people their vote?” I also tackled the misleading information from the new Bolsover MP, saying “The Tower Hamlets investigation in 2012 found only three cases after 64 allegations, yet on the back of it the hon. Gentleman is making out that we should deny millions of people the right to vote. It is ridiculous.” Full speech further in report.
Workers at the @DVLA want to work safely but UK Govt has with do so drawn up by civil servants which has forced a strike & allow COVID infections at DVLA. Govt should agree a safety plan with
WALES NEEDS FAIR SHARE OF H FUNDING TO INVEST IN WELSH R
This month I raised the fact that Wales is not getting it’s fair share of HS2 in the Hous the Secretary of State look at the recommendation of the Welsh Affairs Committee th share of HS2 funding, the same as Scotland, so we can invest in a modern infrastructu particular with the Swansea Bay metro, more quickly?”
Need help during this lockdown? Call my office on 01792 475943
Raise an issue in Par
Email me on info@geraintda
ECTIONS BILL TRUMP
ough an Elections Bill that
claims of personation were any basis or evidence, and ocracy itself. Does she think
hdrawn a plan to wed another 23 h @pcs_union
HS2 RAIL
se of Commons stating, “Will hat Wales should get its fair ure and meet net zero, in
rliament?
aives.org.uk
UK GOVERNMENT MUST REFORM WELSH FUNDING FOR CANCER CARE Geraint Davies MP has called on the UK Government to reform the funding formula for Wales to increase funding for cancer care. Geraint Davies MP said, “I was pleased to lend my support this week for Macmillan’s Biggest Coffee Morning in the Houses of Parliament.” The charity used its well-loved coffee fundraiser to launch a new report “Cancer Nursing on the Line”. “It is clear from Macmillan’s report that the outdated Barnett formula that allows the UK Government to continue to underfund our country must go, so we can increase the number of nurses in our NHS. “I thanked Macmillan for their tremendous support to Swansea residents, especially during the pandemic, and pledged that I will continue to fight additional resources to come from the UK Government to support their wonderful work and the work of excellent local Swansea charities, such as Maggie’s. “We must continue the fight to defeat cancer.”
DON’T TAX WORK, TAX AIR POLLUTION & PLASTIC TO SAVE THE NHS This week I spoke on the Health and Social Care Levy Bill saying “The only way to sustainably finance the costs of social care and the NHS for an ageing population is a growing economy, so why is the Chancellor taxing work? He said at the last Question Time that the only way to tackle poverty was to encourage work, but he is taxing work, and specifically he is taxing poorer, younger workers who do not have assets to pay for the care costs of often richer, non-earning, asset-rich people. It is not fair, it is not economically effective, it is being rushed through—it is wrong in so many ways that it should just be scrapped. “Obviously, we need to pay for care costs. It is appalling that one in four people will be hit with massive care costs through no fault of their own, and we need a system that is fair in terms of taxation to pay for that. I am not a great fan of hypothecation, because we should be deciding how to tax in a fair and economically sensible way and setting out precisely what we are going to spend our money on, neither of which has been done. If we want to grow the economy and tax things that we do not want to occur—people have talked about alcohol and cigarettes—we should be tackling, in particular, air pollution. I say this as the chair of the all-party parliamentary group on air pollution. Air pollution costs us £20 billion in lost productivity and health costs, so why do we not have some sort of escalator on diesel? Why do we not have an incinerator tax? The plan is to double incineration by 2030, yet we read from the latest medical reports that a very small increase in NOx massively increases dementia and mental health issues by something like 32%, with an 18% increase in hospital admissions. We have heard new research about ultrafine particulates from incinerators in urban environments getting straight into the bloodstream and causing problems for the heart, the mind and the lungs in particular, but there has been no mention of any of this.”
“And what about plastics? There will be more plastics than fish in the sea by 2050. We plan to tax plastics at £200 per tonne, but in the EU the figure is £685 per tonne. If we put an extra £400 per tonne on the 12 million tonnes of plastic we produce each year, we would Toggle showing location of Column 875generate £5 billion. Why should we not be able to get a cheaper cup of coffee in a china cup than in a plastic one? That would save the environment. “I support the points that were made by my right hon. Friend the Member for Barking (Dame Margaret Hodge) and others on progressive taxation. Gordon Brown had a national insurance increase all the way up the income scale. Obviously we need a threshold if we are going to use national insurance. Lord Hendy is now putting forward the Status of Workers Bill, which would capture large numbers of people who are currently deemed to be self-employed so that their employers do not have to pay national insurance. In that way, we could have a larger tax footprint, which would be fairer. “Obviously companies such as Amazon should pay more and there should be a transactions tax. Landlords have made capital gains through stamp duty holidays and with interest rates at low levels, and we should also look at a carbon border tax at a time when China is producing more emissions than the United States and the EU combined. “We should tax the bad things—namely, climate change and pollution—not the good things such as work and the economy. On debt costs, the interest rates have been low—they are down £14 billion year on year—and this looks like another attempt to bring down the debt. We must tax the right things, not the wrong things, to sort out the problem.”
“We need to support #BritishFarming & #WelshFarming & reduce red tape with common standards to boost food exports & workers visas to get crops from field to plate.”
SWANSEA WEST MP MEETS LOCAL NET ZERO HERO 50 days ahead of the United Nations climate summit in Glasgow, Swansea West MP, Geraint Davies, met local resident Laura Warren as she visited the House of Commons this week to discuss what it was like to take part in the first ever UK-wide climate assembly and to share their key recommendations with MPs. Parliament invited assembly members to Westminster to mark the first anniversary of their landmark report ‘The Path to Net Zero’ after the original launch plans were disrupted by the pandemic last year. Laura and her fellow Climate Assembly UK members told MPs that they support climate action but that they want climate policies to be fair and backed by better public engagement, choice and clear government leadership.
Laura Warren, said: “I’ve always been an environmentalist and passionate about actually tackling climate change so the invitation to be part of a climate assembly was something I couldn’t turn down. It was challenging and daunting to be given such an important task but I’m happy my MP has taken notice. I hope many more MPs will do the same and watch our documentary.”
Swansea West MP Geraint Davies said: “Laura represents the views of many constituents who send me weekly emails about improving environmental protections. This is about environmental and public health and with COP 26 on the horizon we must act fast. I want to congratulate Laura and thank her for the energy, time and dedication she put into taking part in the assembly. It’s essential that the public’s voice is heard if the UK is to reach its climate targets, ” Sir David Attenborough, People’s Advocate for COP26 said in a personal message to Climate Assembly members this week, “The world’s scientists have been very clear on what’s at stake for mankind if we don’t act on climate change. Our political leaders now need to lead and give people confidence that all the changes needed to deliver net zero are desirable and possible for all of us. Parliament’s Climate Assembly has done a truly remarkable job of highlighting the high levels of public support for climate action up and down this country and given government and MPs an invaluable roadmap of how it can be done. We owe the members of the UK public who took part in it a huge debt of gratitude. Above all, the Assembly has been abundantly clear that greater public participation and fairness is needed at the heart of all climate action and this is therefore a message I hope this government has heard loud and clear and certainly one I plan to share with all world leaders at COP26 in Glasgow.” In 2020, for the first time in its history, the UK Parliament decided to put the question of how we reach our national climate targets to the people in a UK-wide climate assembly. They discussed what a net zero transition might mean for how we travel, what we eat, what we buy and where our electricity comes from. Climate Assembly UK brought together 108 members of the public, chosen through a democratic lottery, who mirrored the UK population in where they lived, characteristics like age and gender, and how concerned (or not) they were about climate change. Their recommendations to MPs could have a big impact on the way we all live our lives over the next few decades. The Assembly’s report was published on 10 September 2020, was forwarded to No10 and welcomed by government ministers. It was also used as evidence by the government’s independent advisors, the Climate Change Committee, for their Sixth Carbon Budget which, in turn, has informed the UK government’s recent pledge to cut national carbon emissions by 78% by 2035. A new ‘behind the scenes’ documentary The People vs Climate Change, is available on BBC iPlayer.
Privileged to present Francesca Lewis Performance Coach of the Year Award at the national 2021 LTA Tennis Awards. At Swansea she supports GB’s top 10-14 year olds & delivered 3 GB no 1’s in past 2 years. But we need £10k sponsorship for accessible coaching! Dig deep.
Warmest congratulations @MahaboobBEM Basha for being awarded the British Empire Medal today for his community work for refugees, asylum seekers, homeless, school governorships & delivering 1800 food parcels & prescriptions to shielding people in Swansea during lockdown
By 2050 there’ll be more plastic than fish in the sea so #GetMarineProtectionDone With Swansea Greenpeace joined by Danielle Lou 3 & Emily Tucker who celebrate a 30th birthday - 30 years from #NetZero we need marine protection now.
All fun at Mayhill Community Day with PCSOs; Shaz Abedean, Hannah Sabatiz, councillors Les Walton, Hannah Lawson @fionamgordon & David Phillips & @JulieJamesMS stall with great pizza from Dinu’s Pizza
WE ARE BETTER THAN THE NATIONALITY & BORDERS BILL This is my speech on the Nationality & Borders Bill, “Last week, Swansea celebrated 10 years as a city of sanctuary. We offer a hand of friendship, not a fist of resistance; we are a community of communities, moving forward together in an uncertain world. But the Bill is not a helping hand for those fleeing war and persecution, nor is it a worthy successor to the 1951 refugee convention that Britain helped to produce. Instead, it is a mean-spirited act of national populism to provide more hostile environment for those in genuine need when we have savagely cut overseas aid by £4.4 billion, which will increase refugee demand. “Last year, we had 27,000 asylum seekers in Britain—the 17th highest number in Europe per head of population and the fifth highest overall—so there is not a massive problem of refugees and asylum seekers. That debate has been whipped up as a cynical political exaggeration. Millions of people have been displaced from Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq, where we have been engaged in war, and we need to take our responsibility in due accord. “The 1951 refugee convention recognised that in fleeing from war and persecution, people arrive irregularly, obviously—they are escaping. The Bill reduces the rights of people who arrive irregularly by boat or lorry, which is a natural way to escape. The plan is to put them into temporary isolated camps so that they do not settle, which will be a magnet for protesters, fascists and the like. They need rehabilitation and settling, not isolation and persecution. People who are not travelling directly or who are delaying will get second-class treatment as so-called group 2 refugees, so they will have to wait 30 months at a time. They will have to wait 10 years before they have any sort of permanency. “What is more, the Bill criminalises people. People could face up to four years in prison if they do not arrive in a regular way, as no one would who was escaping war or persecution. What we should be doing, like the United States—at last—and like Canada and Norway is increasing the number of refugees settled. Ours went down from 5,000 to 3,000, but it should be nearer to 10,000. “The cut in overseas aid will hit people in Yemen, Afghanistan and Syria the hardest and will produce even more problems, but all we can do is create a hostile environment. We are better than this.”
TORIES TO BAN PICKETING
I recently chaired a meeting for Tory CLPs with Shami Chakrabati and Lord John Hendy QC over Tory Police Crime Sentencing & Courts Bill about abolishing the right to picket and peacefully protest. The rights to peaceful protest and picketing are rights that we must continue to fight for, as this flawed piece of Tory legislation risks all of us losing these rights. I will continue to raise awareness of this dangerous legisaltion and mobilise activists to lobby the Government to reconsider.
TRUTH TO POWER In a zoom meeting with their new Ambassador Zhang I reminded him that China produces more emissions than US & EU combined with more fossil fuel subsidies than US+EU+Russia so needs to accelerate towards carbon neutrality. He said China is a developing nation with only 300 million middle class and a billion to go and will only peak emissions in 2030. That’s why we need to introduce a carbon border tax like the EU!
GERAINT WELCOMES HOPE IN SWANSEA APP FOR HOMESLESS In the last month, the #HopeInSwansea app was launched that connects those needing life-giving hope to immediate, local and relevant support where they live. I attended the launch of the important app that will help those homeless, in need, asylum seekers etc to find housing, hot food & help from 100+ organisations in Swansea.
ELECTIONS BILL WILL DISENFRANCHISE MILLIONS
As you may know, Mr Deputy Speaker, Aneurin Bevan famously said that in the struggle between property and poverty, as poverty grows, property will attack democracy. That is what we see today. We need to answer the question: cui bono? Who benefits? We know that 3 million people do not carry photo ID and that 40% will turn away from voting if they forget their ID, which people often do. Something like 30% of people do not vote in general elections anyway, and our focus should be to increase the franchise, not decrease it. Poverty is spiralling upwards. Universal credit is going to be cut, and 7 million people in Britain are in hunger and poverty. We know that the plan is to tax jobs with national insurance, rather than a progressive tax. This Bill is designed to ensure that those who are hit hardest—the poorest—will find it more difficult to vote. I very much support evidence-based policy, but this is not evidence-based; it is looking for the evidence. To tighten up on personation, we could just get the police to do more checks within the existing law. These provisions are part of a pattern of consolidating power and preventing democracy from turning the Government over to another political party. We have seen it in the banning of the right to peaceful protest; with the up and coming review of judicial power; with the boundary changes, the United Kingdom Internal Market Act 2020 and even the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011. All those things consolidate power and do not support the fundamental values that all parties should support: justice in the rule of law, democracy and human rights. We see the restriction on what charities and communities can say, while we allow overseas donors more influence in our politics. We see the Electoral Commission politicised. We saw the rhetoric of the Trump supporters, who said, “Stop the steal”, alleged personation and stormed the White House. We are supporting that sort of thinking, which is without basis. This Bill is a missed opportunity. As has been mentioned by my hon. Friend the Member for Cynon Valley (Beth Winter) and others, in Wales we are moving forward with democracy, including through 16-year-olds having the vote and proportional representation options in local government. Our focus should be to enhance, renew and embolden our democracy, our human rights and the rule of law, but I fear that this Bill is part of a pattern to diminish them, and that over time we will all regret this fundamental mistake.
GERAINT WELCOMES SHORELINE PROJECT PROVIDING ESSENTIAL SERVICE Geraint Davies MP recently met with clients and staff from the Wallich’s Shoreline Project, which provides long-term supported accommodation for homeless individuals in Swansea. Geraint said “The Shoreline project by Wallich is a much-needed service in Swansea and I was thrilled to see the incredible transformation of their outdoor space, which I am sure will be invaluable in the future for many. “Well done to all those involved, including UWTSD and PBM Wales. Diolch @GeraintDaviesMP for taking the time to meet clients and staff at our Shoreline project in Swansea. We hope you felt welcome in our new, improved garden. @TheWallich
Labour should call for EU standards and workers freedom of movement To save jobs & avoid food shortages UK could agree Single Market product standards & time-limited freedom of movement for workers. Instead Brexit Red tape means UK food shortages & falling exports with one EU food lorry needing 300 product certificates!”
I recently held a meeting with Welsh Refugee Council about Borders & Nationalities Bill criminalising refugees on top of Tories screening people to work, rent & use the NHS. Thank you to Riaz Hassan for organising the meeting.
DON’T BURN PLASTIC, TAX IT, FOR HEALTH OF PEOPLE AND PLANET This month I spoke in the Westminster Hall debate on plastic saying, “People may know that the United Nations predicted that by 2050 that there would be more plastic in the sea than fish, and the problem we face is that plastic is simply too cheap. “The reason for that is 6.5% of global GDP is used to subsidise fossil fuels, which creates cheap plastic and China is putting more subsidy into fossil fuels than US, EU and Russia combined. It is incumbent on us to show leadership to reduce subsidises, but also tax plastics. “We know that on simple tasks, such as the carrier bag tax, that this has effective impact on behaviour. It’s all very well preaching to people that they need to use less plastics, but we need the fiscal drivers to make change. “We do need a carbon tax. There is a carbon tax coming forward of plastic that has less than 30% recyclate in it, but of course we should do better than that. Indeed the tax itself is going to be £200 a ton, compared to the EU tax of £685 a ton. So we really need to drive up these costs to switch producers and consumers. It’s all very well having a 25 year environment plan, yet that is simply too long. We know that by 2025 on current projections we would have breach the Paris 1.5% threshold to stop climate change going up.”
“In England the Conservatives will allow private companies on NHS boards spending public money. In Wales Labour is keeping our NHS a public not a privatised service. That’s the difference a Labour Government can make in power.”
CONTACT ME / CYSYLLTU A MI 32 Walter Road, Swansea, SA1 5NW (01792) 4759432
info@geraintdavies.org.uk @GeraintDaviesMP