A lot of people ask me why I want to be a Member of Parliament, and frustratingly I often find myself giving the cliched answer of “to make a positive difference.” While a cliche it is also true, but it can be hard to express exactly what that difference is.
However the other day my friend Layla Moran, the Member of Parliament for Oxford West & Abingdon, highlighted what it is truly all about, and how and why an MP who is engaged with the job and the constituency they represent can make a really important and positive difference.
Layla’s story is reproduced here in full – please do read it as it is very important, and for me it is very inspirational:
Every so often something happens in this job and you realise how much good you can do.
About a month ago on a BBC Radio Oxford call in, a radiographer dialled in anonymously and spoke about how they were concerned for them and their partner who both work for the NHS. They told me that if anything happened to them, especially given the lack of PPE and by being exposed to Coronavirus, and they passed away, that they would be worried for their nine-year-old daughter. They don’t have close family. They wanted reassurance she’d be taken care of financially. He sounded pretty emotional.
Immediately I agreed and said I would take this up. As a direct result of that call, I started calling for a coronavirus compensation scheme to match the Armed Forces compensation scheme for when servicemen lose their lives in service. This would include a lump sum on death, but also a monthly payment to the family and help with funeral costs. That was 25th March.
I told my team I wanted this to be our top campaigning priority. Coronavirus is such a horrible thing. i personally felt a little helpless. This was the first couple of weeks of lockdown. I wanted us to campaign for something positive to give us focus and aim for. at this stage while I knew this was the right thing to campaign for, I didn’t know of it would get any traction.
So we organised a letter. 49 other MPs cross party signed it along side me and we sent this to Boris Johnson on 30 March.
I thought we may be onto something when influential Conservative MPs were saying they’d back it or push for it behind the scenes. But I was not at all sure it would take off. That week we had some media interest but needed to keep pushing.
We started a petition on Change.org and spent the next few weeks working on it, getting people to sign, trying to publicise the idea. I didn’t want it Party branded because I felt given the sensitive nature of the subject it might stand a better chance of getting taken up if I took all political heat out of it.
Then last week we had the incredible news that Brexit loving Daily Express was going to take up this campaign! Perhaps speaking to the way this virus is breaking down political boundaries, but also that if you pick the right issues you can resonate with all sorts of people you may not have expected. I did an interview with them it was on their front page for most of last week.
Then this morning we saw that the Times were on board we could feel the momentum building. We were hopeful that something would be done
And then. Drumrolls please.
Today at 5pm, just over one month on from my call with that radiographer, Matt Hancock the Health Secretary announced that they are introducing a scheme for those families of NHS and social care workers who have tragically died. These families will get £60,000. Now, that’s not quite the same as what we’ve been calling for. I asked for all frontline key workers, for payments until retirement, payment for children and also help with funeral costs, but let’s not let the best be the enemy of the good. This is a win.
Being an MP there’s lots that you can influence, there’s lots that you can raise, and lots that you can do. I love this job but it’s not very often that you can say start to finish that you were responsible for a specific change. Which is what makes this so special. There are going to be grieving families out there today, sad to have lost a loved one, but who are going to get a very welcome lump sum of money because of the campaign that I started off the back of a local radiographer calling in anonymously asking for help and reassurance.
If anyone reading this works at the JR and knows who this person is, Or can get a message to that team, please can you let them know what they did? Or even to get in touch? I’d love to speak to them.
Today has been a GOOD DAY in the office.
Layla Moran MP
Oxford West and Abingdon
For more from Layla – visit: http://www.laylamoran.com/
northhertssam.com 