Wes Streeting’s speech setting out Labour’s position on Plan B Covid legislation

Wes Streeting MP, Labour's Shadow Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, in the House of Commons, said:

Thank you Mr Speaker.

Can I begin by acknowledging that that are sincere and deeply held views on both sides of the debate that we are having this afternoon and I respect those taking a different view.

But can I also say that we owe it to our country to give them a debate worthy of the finest traditions of this House.

And it should not be for me, as the Shadow Secretary of State, to point out to some Conservative MPs following remarks made in the media in recent days that we are not living in the 1930s and the Secretary of State and his team are not Nazis.

On their shoulders rests the health of our nation and the responsibility to protect our NHS. They need our support, and they are owed better treatment than they have received from some on their own side in recent days.

But no matter how dysfunctional the Conservative Party has become, the country can rely on Labour.

We will act in the national interest as we have done throughout the pandemic, putting public health before party politics, by supporting the motions under consideration this afternoon.

We do not do so lightly. Throughout the pandemic we have asked the British people to make big sacrifices to support the national effort against coronavirus.

Sacrifices which have impacted on lives, livelihoods and liberties.

Whenever this House considers such measures, we owe it to the British people to explain why they are necessary.

We are doing so because we believe these measures are a necessary response to the Omicron threat.

Necessary to protect ourselves
Necessary to protect the ones we love
And necessary to protect our NHS.

We can’t yet be sure about the severity of the Omicron variant, but we can be certain that it is spreading and spreading fast - faster than any other variant.

Even if a smaller proportion of Omicron victims are hospitalised, the rapid advance of the virus through the population could see large numbers of people admitted to hospital during the months in which the NHS is under greatest pressure.

There should be no complacency about this.

The winter months present that greatest pressures on the NHS in any normal year and, as we know, this is far from a normal year.

The NHS is contending with winter pressures, a serious backlog, the Delta variant and now the Omicron variant.

Many of these challenges are understandable given the unprecedented challenges of the covid-19 pandemic, but we’ve got to be honest and acknowledge that confronting those challenges has been made much harder because we went INTO the pandemic with

- NHS waiting lists at a record 4 and a half million
- 100,000 staff vacancies
- and a shortage of 112,000 staff in social care

It wasn’t just that they didn’t fix the roof while the sun was shining, it’s that they dismantled the roof and removed the floor boards.

Now the NHS is locked in a race against time.

A race against the fastest variant of covid-19 we have seen to date.

A race to get as many people boosted as possible before the end of this month.

We support them in that task. And let me say to every NHS worker, every GP, every pharmacist, every public health official in local government, every member of our armed forces and every volunteer stepping up to meet this enormous task: we are with them 100% and if anyone can do it, they can.

But we also need to buy them some time.

The measures put forward for consideration today are an attempt to do just that by slowing the spread of the virus whilst trying to protect Christmas so that people can enjoy the festive season safely.

By limiting our interactions in the workplace.

By wearing face coverings in settings where the virus finds it easiest to spread.

By testing before we attend large indoor gatherings.

And by getting behind the booster rollout to ensure that everyone is protected.

The goal in the end must be to learn to live with the virus. That means effective vaccination, anti-viral treatments and public health measures that have a minimal impact on our lives, our jobs and our businesses.

Let me take each of them in turn and explain why Labour supports them

[MASK WEARING]

Mr Speaker, no one enjoys wearing a mask.

I certainly don’t.

But it is nothing compared with the costs that more draconian restrictions have on our lives, livelihoods and liberties.

Masks are simply a price worth paying for our freedom to go out and live our lives during this pandemic.

Not only that, but in times of rising infections, when people are feeling increasingly cautious, it is vital to our economy that we feel safe boarding a busy bus or entering a crowded theatre.

The Government should have never got rid of the requirement to wear masks in these settings.

[VACCINE PASS]

The re-introduction of the Covid pass for large indoor gatherings.

I use that description deliberately, and I welcome the changes to the proposals originally set out by the Government over the summer.

The Labour Party argued against vaccine passports without the option of showing a negative test.

Further, we argued that these passes should not be required for access to essential services.

On both counts, the Government listened, amended the proposals, and so we can support this measure today.

And let me be clear- we in the Labour Party support Covid passes because we support British business.

This is about giving people the confidence to go out and about, despite the presence of Omicron.

Take music venues and theatres.

With passes and lateral flow tests, venues can operate at 100% capacity. Punters can be confident that they are safe to attend and enjoy themselves. The show goes on, and everyone stays in a job.

Look at Italy, France, Denmark- countries with strict Covid passport rules. All have seen their retail and recreation sectors fare far better than here in the UK.

Without these measures, with rising infections, with more hospitalisations, we would risk seeing the government forced to impose more draconian restrictions, shutting down our cultural sector, collapsing the economy again.

However, for these passes to work, people must be able to access tests easily and readily.

We cannot continue in this situation where tests are out of stock and unavailable to the public who are required to take them.

Not if Covid passes are to work.

And not if people who are close contacts of a Covid case are to be able to take the daily tests required.

The Government’s website showed PCR tests unavailable throughout England this morning. The only region where lateral flow tests are available today is the South East.

This needs to be resolved immediately.

Mr Speaker, the measure on daily testing is one that seems to have united the House in agreement, but the Secretary of State needs to get a grip on this and ensure we have access to the tests we need.

[WFH]

Mr Speaker, we have called for workers to be given the flexibility to work from home for months, and we support the guidance to work from home where possible.

And I want to tackle head on the argument that there is a contradiction in requiring people to work from home where they can, while at the same time allowing them to go out to Christmas parties.

It is precisely because we want to protect people’s ability to enjoy Christmas safely this year that we support this measure.

By limiting the interactions people have at work, and thereby lowering infections, we hope to preserve their ability to go ahead with the social interactions they cherish most at this time of year.

[NHS staff vaccs]

Since the Prime Minister rather clumsily and unhelpfully tried to open a ‘national conversation’ on mandatory vaccinations for the country last week I want to make it crystal clear that we do not favour mandatory vaccinations in general.

We believe the vaccine is safe and effective and that everyone should choose to have it. I can’t give it any stronger endorsement than to say that I have had my first two jabs and will having my booster on Thursday. I wouldn’t take it myself or recommend it to others, unless I believed it to be safe.

On mandatory vaccinations for NHS staff, I recognise this is a difficult issue for colleagues across the House and in our NHS.

But the NHS has asked us for this.

Patients want this.

And we are persuaded that the threat of Omicron makes it even more important for staff to be vaccinated to protect themselves and to protect the public they serve.

Infection control will be a real challenge this winter.

Ensuring that the NHS workforce is fully vaccinated protects patients, and it protects staff, who put themselves in harm’s way enough already.

This is not a new precedent. NHS staff are already required to inoculate themselves against other diseases. It is a professional duty.

And the NHS clearly believes that the April deadline does give sufficient time to persuade the workforce to protect themselves, their patients, and their loved ones, without seeing an exodus of staff.

Those are the arguments.

But I would also just ask members to think, about the NHS staff who go to work every day, feeling unsafe, because their colleagues are not protected.

I ask them to think how they would feel if a loved one were treated in a clinical setting or care home, by an unvaccinated member of staff, through which they contracted Covid and with it serious illness or worse.

I believe that is why the public want to see this. And Labour will be supporting this measure too.

But I also want to say to the Secretary of State and his team: if you are asking the health and social care workforce to do their duty as professionals, you must also show greater respect to their professional voice and experience.

On pay.

On conditions.

On workload.

It is often said that the NHS runs on goodwill. I would like to see the government showing greater goodwill in return and to engage with the royal colleges and staff trades unions not just on the plan for vaccine rollout to their members, but on the debate about the future of our health and social care systems and the big workforce challenge.

This should be a partnership. People who work in health and social care do so because they really believe in what they’re doing. They really care. And they have so much to offer if the Government will listen to them.

[Not included]

Finally Mr Speaker, there are areas where we think the Government can and should go further without impact on people’s lives, livelihoods and liberties.

On ventilation in schools, we know that young people have borne the brunt of this pandemic and we owe it to them, to their education and to the staff who support them to make sure that there schools are properly ventilated. This can’t wait until October next year. We need action now.

On jabs for young people, the Christmas holidays seem to us to be an ideal time to get young people vaccinated. When does the Secretary of State think we can see action on this front?

And on statutory sick pay, we know that there are people out there who are forced to choose between doing the right thing by their families and doing the right thing by public health because they cannot afford to isolate at home. So we implore the Government again to act by making sure that higher statutory sick pay is available to people immediately so that they can afford to do the right thing.

We have not played games with these votes.

We are not exploiting the divisions in the Conservative Party to inflict defeat on the government for the sake of scoring political points.

The threat facing the country is too serious.

And Labour takes our duty to the country seriously.

The Tories may be in disarray.

But the public can rely on Labour to keep the country safe.

To do the right thing.

To support these measures today.

And we trust the British people to do the same.