Public Health England Review: Covid-19 Disparities Debate

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Department: HM Treasury

Public Health England Review: Covid-19 Disparities

Mark Fletcher Excerpts
Thursday 4th June 2020

(4 years, 5 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Kemi Badenoch Portrait Kemi Badenoch
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I will repeat the point I made earlier: we should not conflate black people with people who do not have any recourse to public funds. It is a very—I am not going to say the words “disingenuous argument”, Mr Speaker, but I do think that this is something that we need to be very clear about and not muddy the waters in terms of what is going on.

Mark Fletcher Portrait Mark Fletcher (Bolsover) (Con)
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I have received many, many letters from constituents across the Bolsover constituency saying how proud they are of how many BAME people have contributed to our health service and to our care system. Does the Minister agree that they have made a fantastic contribution and that we should welcome that?

Kemi Badenoch Portrait Kemi Badenoch
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Absolutely. We do welcome that. It is very heartening, as I said earlier, to see that communities all across the country are not just saying, but showing, how much we value the contribution that black and minority ethnic workers—key workers in particular—provide to our society.