Richmond Park News: 29 September 2020

MY RESPONSE TO NEW COVID-19 MEASURES

It's been a busy week in Parliament scrutinising the latest initiatives from the Government and their handling of the Covid-19 crisis. The Chancellor's new support package for businesses once again excludes millions of self-employed people and small businesses, including many in Richmond Park. I met with the grassroots NGO Excluded UK about this and have written to the Chancellor following that discussion. You can see my letter here:

ExcludedUK Treasury Letter Scan 29.09

.20

Download 20 • 1.33MB

I also wrote to to the Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport about support for arts and sport venues and companies. Many of my constituents work in this sectors and are deeply worried about the future of public events. These businesses need to be able to reopen safely in order to survive, and the Government needs to do more to enable this. You can see my letter to the Secretary of State for DCMS here:

ExcludedUK DCMS Letter Scan 29.09.20

.pdf

Download PDF • 1.11MB

Thirdly, I co-signed a letter from my colleague Daisy Cooper to Business Secretary Alok Sharma yesterday regarding the new 10pm closure time for pubs. I am concerned about the impact this will have on our hospitality sector in Richmond Park, which has been struggling to survive since March. If we are going to take risks with so many local jobs and businesses, it is vital that we first be sure the science supports what we are doing.