Covid-19

Apsana Begum Excerpts

Tuesday 22nd September 2020 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I thank my hon. Friend for what she says. The best thing we can do for retail, which we opened up again in June, is to ensure that we keep it open and that people can keep going to the shops in a covid-secure way, including on the high streets in Morley and Outwood. That is the way to take our country forward. But the way to do it is to follow this package of measures to the letter. I am delighted that it has Opposition support, which, as she rightly says, is not uniform or everyday, but we have got it today. Let us work with it and get that message across to the country.

[Apsana Begum (Poplar and Limehouse) (Lab)]

Through the testing scheme, we have seen that the BAME population has suffered most from covid-19. What assurances can the Prime Minister give that ethnic minority communities can be prioritised for testing? My constituency has a high Bangladeshi population, which has suffered the highest number of excess deaths of any ethnic group. That community is devastated. It really needs assurances that it will be prioritised for testing, along with other ethnic groups.

[The Prime Minister]

We grieve for what has happened in black and minority ethnic communities. The hon. Lady is right in what she says about the Bangladeshi community. We will do everything we can to get all the groups in our country that need testing the testing they deserve as fast as we possibly can. All I can tell her is that we have hugely expanded our testing capacity. There is a hierarchy of need, of priority groups, which she will have seen. We will do everything we can to ensure that black and minority ethnic groups get the support and protections they need, in addition to the measures that we have already taken, which I outlined earlier.