On Sunday we brought you the news that Christine Jardine’s Private Member’s Bill to give NHS workers the right to remain in the UK.
Sadly, today, the Tories tried to kill that hope by cancelling all sitting Fridays until the end of March. At best this postpones when the Bill will be heard.
Christine’s Bill proposed that all health and social care staff from outside the EU would be granted indefinite leave to remain, enabling them to avoid the hellscape that is our immigration system and granting them rights enjoyed by British citizens.
Christine vowed to fight on, though:
Like the rest of our wonderful NHS and care staff, hundreds of thousands of people from other countries are on the frontlines of the Covid pandemic, putting themselves in harm’s way to make sure we get the care we need.
The UK should say, loudly and unequivocally, that those who have put their lives at risk for our country are welcome to live in it. That’s what my Bill would do, and I am deeply disappointed that the Government is not even letting it be debated in Parliament.
I am not giving up. I will urge Ministers again to make Government time available to pass this urgent legislation, which has cross-party support.
The idea that anyone who has worked so hard to save lives during this emergency might one day be forced to leave should be unthinkable.
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Democracy on fire
In which my second crack at a Dickens joke comes on live radio
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