This week's MPs column comes from Labour MP for Bradford East, Imran Hussain.


AS Bradford and the rest of the country stare down the barrel of even tighter restrictions on our daily lives amidst a rising number of coronavirus cases, not since the early days of this crisis has the situation that we face been so worrying.

Indeed, as the Chief Medical Officer has warned, the number of cases nationwide risks spiralling out of control with the number of infections potentially reaching 50,000 a day by mid-October, leading to more hospitalisations and deaths in the coming weeks.

During a crisis, we need to be able to look to and trust our Government to do the right thing to keep us all safe.

Yet Ministers have been too slow to recognise the challenges people face, and too inadequate in their response when they finally do. We deserve better than this and we need better than this if we are to get through this crisis.

Nowhere can their failures be seen more starkly than in their record on testing. In May, the Prime Minister promised us a ‘world-beating system’, but months later, it is world-beating in all the wrong categories.

Many people are experiencing lengthy waits to receive results whilst others are forced to travel great distances just to get a test, and this is just simply not good enough when testing is so pivotal to our response.

As the World Health Organisation said at the beginning of the crisis, one of the best things that Governments can do is to “test, test, test”. Whilst testing is not enough on its own, it is how we confirm cases, identify local spikes and target resources. It is how we ensure that our response is not firing blindly in the dark.

The Government must therefore get an urgent grip on testing and guarantee that anyone can get a local test within 24 hours if they have symptoms and then get their results within a further 24 hours, with frequent testing for key workers such as those in our NHS and schools, and for children who are back at school.

They have also been unable to understand that whilst we may all be in the same storm together, we are not all in the same boat. Consequently, they have failed to properly support all those who must self-isolate because they have received a positive test, been told to do so by the NHS, or are experiencing coronavirus symptoms

Whilst some people who must self-isolate have savings to fall back on or can work from home, those in poverty or on lower incomes do not have this security. Instead, they face the choice between isolating, missing two weeks wages and struggling to put food on the table or make rent, or going to work and risking infecting others – isolation or financial survival.

The announcement of £500 for those self-isolating is, therefore, a step in the right direction, but it excludes too many people and will only apply to those told to isolate by the NHS, not those who are taking the sensible approach - advocated by the Health Secretary himself - of isolating with symptoms.

It also sidesteps the issue that Statutory Sick Pay is inadequate to live on. At just £95.85 per week, it falls £230 short of what is received by someone on the minimum wage, which makes all the difference for those already struggling to make ends meet. We need to see the rate of sick pay raised to that of the minimum wage, just as it is for the jury service allowance so that no one has to flout the rules to survive and so we can stop this virus circulating.

Ministers also have to stop creating contradictions and inconsistencies in the rules and restrictions that they impose. Telling us that we cannot see our friends and families, regardless of the precautions that we take, whilst also telling us to go back to work, go back to school and go out, all mixing with relative strangers under the same roof, simply makes no sense.

Instead, they are creating confusion and whittling away at the public’s trust and confidence, undermining any collective effort to tackle this virus and eroding the desire of people to follow rules increasingly seen as nonsensical, and whilst everyone should, of course, abide by these restrictions, the Government have to return to much clearer, concise messaging that is easy for all to follow.

In such a great national crisis, no one wants or can afford to see the Government fail and we all need to see them succeed in curbing the spread of coronavirus, but we can never refuse to speak out when they are failing or not going far enough to keep us safe, nor refuse to call for better measures.

Ministers have to urgently get a grip on testing, on support for everyone to self-isolate if needed and remove the inconsistencies in their restrictions, and they have to step up before a devastating second wave truly arrives.