John Cryer, Mp For Leyton And Wanstead

We are all facing lockdown, a massive change to our liberty, a public health threat to our lives and a threat to the economic life of our country.

I had always thought that Boris Johnson’s tenure as prime minister would begin on a high before crashing to earth after a few months.

Much of our new prime minister’s rambled acceptance speech last Tuesday was met noticeably with a wall of bemused silence from Conservative Party faithful. I wonder if this has set the tone for his premiership.

Almost a year ago I wrote in this paper about my fears for families facing migration from old benefits to Universal Credit amidst the government’s “clumsy” rollout, which was causing “homelessness and hunger wherever it goes”.

The Windrush scandal has brought many uncomfortable things to light about the British government and the way it works.

We are all appalled by what seems to have been a horrific chemical weapons attack in Syria.

As with most MPs, Friday is a day that I normally dedicate to constituency engagements, however many local residents have contacted me about this humanitarian issue and I agree that the measures in the bill are well worth supporting. Nobody chooses to be uprooted from their home by war, genocide or persecution, so it is heartbreakingly unjust when that process divides families. People who have fled such cataclysmic events as the war in Syria need those closest to them to help them overcome the trauma they have suffered, and yet under the current arrangements too many families remain separated by thousands of miles with no means of reuniting.