Weekly Update – Friday 4th December 2020
#Stoptheflight
Last week I wrote to the Home Secretary, Priti Patel, urging her to stop a mass deportation that was planned for Wednesday 2nd December. The Home Secretary refused to listen to myself and many of my colleagues who contacted her. She dismissed those being deported as ‘foreign criminals’ and once against attacked so called ‘activist lawyers’.
The events that have happened since have shown just how wrong she was and vindicated all of the activists, legal groups and other Members of Parliament who spoke out against the mass deportation. Out of the 50 individuals the Home Secretary wanted to deport, only 13 remained on the plane when it took off in the early hours of Wednesday.
A judge made the decision that what the Home Secretary was trying to do was not lawful. Many of those she wanted to deport had been prevented from seeking legal representation. Others may have been the victims of modern slavery. Still more had spent almost their entire lives in this country and would have been forcibly taken from their families and the only homes they’ve ever known.
The Government wants to paint those they tried to deport as “Foreign criminals” in a poorly vailed attempt to gain support from the anti-immigrant far-right. But the reality is different. They are people who have grown up in the UK and often only committed minor offences. They have lived and worked in the UK all their lives. This is their only home. They are our neighbours, our friends and family members. Most of them would be classified as part of the Windrush generation if it weren’t for small technicalities. It’s therefore unsurprising that a judge decided the Home Secretary was acting unlawfully by trying to deport people out of their own country. Sadly, another embarrassing defeat in the courts is unlikely to deter the Home Secretary who appears immune from the consequences of her own failings.
The Windrush Compensation Scheme is flawed
Since it was established in April 2019, the Windrush Compensation Scheme has completely failed the Windrush generation. The scheme has been slow in the extreme. Nine victims of the Windrush scandal have now sadly died before receiving a decision. Not only that, the scheme also fails to give Windrush victims an independent right of appeal and last week a key member of staff in the scheme resigned citing systemic racism as the reason for her resignation.
One of the key issues with the scheme, highlighted by campaigners since the scheme was established last year, had been the high burden of proof it asks from applicants. Instead of judging evidence on the ‘balance of probabilities’, the scheme has applied the much higher ‘beyond reasonable doubt’ burden, a measure that you would expect to see at a murder trial. By applying this burden of proof, the scheme has re-criminalised the Windrush victims.
I’m therefore pleased that the Home Secretary has now admitted that burden is wrong and has agreed to lower the burden in many parts of the compensation scheme to the ‘balance of probabilities. However, this raises the question of what happens to those who have been denied compensation when the previous burden was applied. That is something the Home Office now needs to address. Every Windrush victims deserve justice and we cannot let the incompetence of the Home Office get in the way of that.
‘Worth Less?’ Campaign
This week it was a pleasure to meet with representatives from the ‘Worth Less’? campaign – a grassroots campaign group made up of head teachers from across 79 local authorities and London boroughs. The ‘Worth Less?’ campaign has sprung up in response to the disastrous handling of the pandemic by the Department for Education.
From the exam fiasco in the summer and the failure to support disadvantaged students during October half term to the lack of clarity around PPE – teachers, pupils and parents have been let down time and time again. Sadly, this has meant that underfunded schools and overworked teachers have been left to pick up the pieces and do what they think is right to support their students during this unique year.
Sadly the Secretary of State has so far ignored the campaign’s request for a meeting, but I will continue to do what I can to support the campaign and call on the Government to step up and do what it needs to do to support schools – including dropping SATs in primary schools and improving the supply of laptops to disadvantaged children.
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Thank you for taking the time to read my latest update, if you have any issues that you would like to raise directly with me then please do email [email protected]. I’m always happy to help whenever possible.
Kind regards,
[Signature]
Kate Osamor
Member of Parliament for Edmonton