Public Health

Jackie Doyle-Price Excerpts

Wednesday 30th December 2020 Commons Chamber

[Jackie Doyle-Price (Thurrock) (Con)]

This time last year, I was really looking forward to 2020, as the year when we finally get Brexit done. Everything was looking so positive, but what an appalling year it has been. It is nice to end it on a bit of a high, not least having passed the Bill today, but with the welcome news about the AstraZeneca vaccine, which will transform the way in which we will handle this disease. I pay tribute to everyone who has been involved in all the missions to find an appropriate vaccine—it has been a trial. I was not confident that we would ever achieve it and it is a blessing that we finally have done so. It will transform our ability to manage this disease, but we still have a long way to go, because the logistical task of vaccinating a critical mass of the population in order to stop the spread of the disease and save lives will take a number of weeks.

We are therefore still facing restrictions on our behaviour for some time yet, particularly as the Government are using the tools in these motions to tackle the transmission. I still have serious concerns about whether these measures are effective, and I say that as the representative for Thurrock. We are at the top of a league that no one wants to top, as we currently have the highest incidence of covid cases at 1,411 per 100,000 people—the figure for the over-60s is 1,012. We are at that stage despite going into the November lockdown in tier 1. We came from such a good place; we had had no deaths since July and the disease was being managed, yet lockdown has seen it mushroom.

So what has happened? The truth is that closing down businesses clearly was not effective in stopping the transmission of the virus, because it grew in our schools. We had asymptomatic transmission, with schoolchildren taking it home and then from the homes it was going into the workplaces. In Thurrock, we have particular workplaces where the disease has just spread. For example, our local Royal Mail depot has had to close because of the extent of the infection, and in Grays, where I live, we have not had any postal delivery for three weeks. You can imagine, Mr Deputy Speaker, how upset our constituents get at Christmas when they do not receive their post. I have not been a very popular Member of Parliament when I have asked people to be patient at this time of year. That illustrates that there is a question about whether we have really been using the right tools to tackle virus transmission. Putting Thurrock—home to Lakeside shopping centre, a major employer—in tier 4 in the last week before Christmas has frankly done nothing to stop the spread, but it has caused significant economic harm to all who work in retail in my constituency. I urge the Government to focus please on whether the measures that we are using to tackle this virus are effective and delivering the outcomes that we want.

In previous debates on these matters, I have paid tribute to particular staff involved in delivering our healthcare, most notably pharmacists, paramedics and ambulance workers. Today, I want to thank all those in our care homes who have given real care, particularly over Christmas, to vulnerable people who are in the twilight of their lives and who are experiencing severe distress at the inability to spend time with their families. For an elderly person in the twilight of their life to see their loved ones through plastic screens and wearing masks—frankly, it ain’t much fun. It is made bearable only by the real dedication of those who look after our elderly people, and I really pay tribute to those staff today.

Finally, I come back to businesses. Once the March lockdown was lifted, 25% of our independent retailers did not reopen. We know that the retail sector depends heavily on Christmas to sustain businesses for the rest of the year. I have severe fears about what will happen to the retail sector after we emerge from this period, because businesses will have lost that Christmas. They will emerge debt-ridden, with no cash flow. What this Government have done has hastened the decline of the high street, and the economic costs will be severe.