17th January 2022: A Week in Parliament

Partygate

Last summer, I looked out my window…there were loads of people coming through my side gate, and it sounded like their bags were clinking a fair bit. After a while, I went out into my garden, chatted to a few of them and enjoyed a nice glass of wine before going back inside to do some more work. It wasn’t until recently that I realised given it was during lockdown, that perhaps I shouldn’t have facilitated it all. At no point did I consider this a gathering. This is the gist of Boris Johnson’s latest excuse. How can this man credibly be Prime Minister?

Illegal Contracts

Because of the latest Downing Street revelations, it almost went unnoticed, but on the same day, Johnson was defending himself from the latest leaks, the courts confirmed that the VIP lane for the awarding of PPE contracts was illegal. This should have more people angry than is the case. In the midst of a pandemic, where the UK Government refused to do travel restrictions, and an early lockdown, we had a PPE crisis, affecting the lives of frontline NHS staff. Yes, emergency procurement was required, but even so, the Tories opted to use the emergency procurement measures to ensure friends and cronies benefited. It is the fact that it was people who knew how to make a quick buck rather than actually be specialised in supplying PPE is what gets me angry. Instead of talking about a windfall tax on the oil and gas companies, we should also be talking about a windfall tax on these companies that made hundreds of millions of pounds of profit from taxpayers, completely out of kilter with normal company performance.

Chinese Influence

As MPs we all need to be wary of you may be trying to influence you. M15 and parliamentary security recently went public on a London lawyer, Christine Lee, who they say are involved in covert operations for the Chinese Government/Communist Party. On the back of this, Barry Gardiner, Labour MP and former Minister/Shadow Minister has confirmed he had donations worth over £500k via Ms Lee to allow him to recruit staff. He has declared the donations openly, at least. However, it would seem incredible that an MP would not be suspicious about someone’s motives with such large financial backing. The fact he employed her son as diary manager may well have been her quid pro quo.

VAT on Energy Bills

Another Brexit lie, promoted by Boris Johnson is that on leaving the EU, then the UK would abolish VAT on energy bills. Yet, when Labour brought a motion to do just that, the Tories voted it down, including the backbench Tories who are still calling for a VAT cut. It is ridiculous, their excuse being that Labour was taking control of the order paper. Given VAT is about £90 per year for the average user, a temporary relief will be welcome. However, much more is required to combat the cost of living crisis, including direct intervention by the Government to stop the energy cap from rising massively in April.