Bell Ribeiro-Addy MP

Member of Parliament for Streatham (and parts of Balham, Clapham Common, Tulse Hill and Brixton Hill)
Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Clapham & Brixton Hill

Members’ Report: December 2020

Jan 11, 2021 | Members Report

Share this page

I’d like to wish you a very happy and healthy new year. Unfortunately, the Tories are making that very difficult on both counts! As we head into 2021, you could be forgiven for thinking it doesn’t look all that different to 2020. I hope your Christmas break was as peaceful and restful as possible under the circumstances.

Attached is my last members’ report of 2020, detailing what I have been doing during December. You can also read this over at my website.

December was predictably busy as the Government took its Brexit trade deal right down to the wire and clung onto the ineffective tier system as coronavirus cases skyrocketed.

As we deal with the economic fallout of Brexit, the UK has now officially entered its third national lockdown and the Government is getting ready to rip up workers’ rights, environmental standards and consumer protections in the name of “competition”.

We must do everything in my power to oppose this race to the bottom and stand up for those who are weathering the worst impacts of this situation.

AMM-Report-December-2020

Thank you to all those of you who shared your thoughts with me on the Brexit Deal. Whilst it was clear that people in Streatham were worried about the possibility of a No Deal, it was also clear that the prospect of a hard Brexit was equally repellent.

In the event, I cast my vote against in the division lobby. Nobody wanted a deal which fails to protect the NHS, workers’ rights, migrants, environmental standards and security. But the problem with this rotten Brexit deal goes much deeper.

It is bad enough that MPs were given just five hours to debate a 1,200 page document that will determine the future of generations to come. What is even worse is that Parliament didn’t actually get a meaningful vote on the deal itself, just on whether or not to give the Government a wide-ranging set of powers to implement it.

To be clear, the deal would have been implemented however Parliament voted on it. When the Government stood up and declaimed that voting against their deal was voting for No Deal, they were straightforwardly lying about this.
We know that for the elite who steered the project from start to finish, Brexit was never about democracy. Its predictable ending was a far cry from the arguments about parliamentary sovereignty and accountability used by those who argued for it in the first place.

Left with a deal which will inflict damage on jobs and the economy, drive down living standards and erode workers’ rights in the name of competition, our priority must now be opposing the inevitable race to the bottom that will follow.

If you have any questions about the contents of this month’s report or anything else related to the work I’m doing as MP, please get in touch in the usual way: bell.ribeiroaddy.mp@parliament.uk