Thangam Debbonaire Profile picture
Chair, Labour Women’s Network. former Labour MP &Shadow Sec of State Culture etc. Arts/creative industries. Migration. playing cello. learning Arabic.

May 13, 2021, 8 tweets

Today was my first opportunity to challenge the government as Shadow Leader of the House of Commons. The government controls most of the parliamentary timetable, so weekly Business Questions are an opportunity to scrutinise these decisions closely (THREAD).

Up against my opposite number Jacob Rees Mogg, I first asked about the government’s attempts to restrict voting through their #VoterID proposals. This is a scandalous attack on democracy.

Next, social care. This is more urgent than ever. 659 days since Prime Minister said he had a plan to fix it, 10 years since Dilnot Commission proposed such a plan. When will the govt act?

Then, the #buildingsafety crisis. Four years on from the Grenfell Tower tragedy, govt is still pushing 1000s of people into debt, for a problem they did not cause #morethancladding.

I closed the session demanding real accountability in the public Covid inquiry. We’ve had one of the worst death rates and economic downturns of any country. We owe it to the country to find out what went wrong – and the government must learn from mistakes.

You can watch the government’s answers here: parliamentlive.tv/event/index/cd…

I used some of my time opposite Jacob Rees Mogg this morning to invite him to congratulate Labour's @votedannorris, his predecessor MP, who the people N Somerset voted for in such large numbers recently.

It's great to see the level of Labour support in West of England. Jacob congratulated Dan Norris but he must know he is on notice for his own seat after that result.

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