Covid-Secure Borders

Jack Dromey Excerpts

Tuesday 15th June 2021 Commons Chamber

[Jack Dromey (Birmingham, Erdington) (Lab)]

The calamity that we have witnessed in recent days is because of the Government’s botched handling of the delta variant. This was not inevitable, but a failure of this Government to act swiftly and without dither or delay against the variant. Indeed, this whole sorry saga is a culmination of blunder after blunder in the Government’s protection of our borders during the pandemic. My right hon. Friend the Member for Normanton, Pontefract and Castleford (Yvette Cooper) was right to point to the repeated making of mistakes. This should not have happened. As an island nation, we should be better than this. Instead we have seen a Government too slow on quarantine at international arrivals, too slow on border testing, and too slow to put India on the red list. It took 22 days between the Government knowing that the delta variant had entered the UK and India being placed on the red list. All the while, the delta variant has spread throughout the country.

The consequences for public health are serious, but so are the consequences for British businesses, not least those in the hospitality industry in Birmingham. The managing director of one events company said that this is

“having a huge impact on my business”.

Another said:

“We understand the need to ban events but the uncertainty and short-term plans from the Government have really hampered any recovery”.

And another said that extra support from the Treasury would be vital because without it

“further job losses are inevitable and ultimately an entire industry will collapse.”

This is the key reason why the Government’s failures will be so costly to British business and British workers.

Thus far, the Chancellor refuses to support those businesses whose suffering will be prolonged because of the Government’s blunders on protecting our borders. Just how can the Government expect those struggling events businesses in Birmingham that have been closed for the past 15 months to be able to pay, for example, 10% of their employees’ wages when they are still unable to operate as normal? UKHospitality has been particularly critical, saying that a failure to act could see the industry suffering a loss of £3 billion and put up to 200,000 jobs at risk. That problem is particularly acute in the constituency that I am proud to represent, because the unemployment figures out today show that we have twice the national average unemployment. I always say that my constituency is rich in talent but one of the poorest in Britain. It will be hit hard with job losses as a consequence of this.

It beggars belief that, after the trauma of the past 15 months, good businesses and good jobs face going to the wall because the Government have thus far refused to support them for the final weeks of restrictions. I say “thus far” because one of the key reasons behind the motion is that we eminently hope that the Government will act in terms of financial support at the next stages. We hope that the House will vote for the motion, because it is about the interests of the British people and their health, welfare and safety, and about protecting British jobs. Without the proper protections at our borders, we run the risk of future variants threatening the road map for relaxing restrictions further, and the devastating impact that that will needlessly inflict on businesses and workers.

In conclusion, our focus is twofold. It is on the interests of British business—of that there is absolutely no doubt, because it matters—but it is also on the health, wellbeing and safety of the British people, because the first duty of any Government is the safety and security of their citizens. I fear that unless the Government get a serious grip of this situation, they will put their responsibility to the British people in jeopardy.