Responding to the Queen’s Speech, MP for Nottingham East, Nadia Whittome said:

“Despite the Queen’s Speech containing reference to around 30 bills, there were glaring omissions which mean pressing crises will continue to grow, for Nottingham and across the country. Even after its failures in the pandemic, the government is continuing to delay urgent funding reform for the social care sector. Its environmental legislation is nowhere near ambitious and concrete enough. And there was little to tackle the rampant poverty and inequality which blights our society.

“What’s more, a number of the proposed legislative changes signal a further dangerous turn towards authoritarianism by this government. Its plans to make photo ID compulsory to vote in elections risks disenfranchising younger people, poorer people and people of colour. The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill represents the biggest threat to the right to protest in a generation and will criminalise Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities’ way of life. Its plans for the immigration and asylum system have received international condemnation from human rights and refugee organisations.”

“The government should have used the Queen’s Speech to rebuild the fairer, greener economy and society, coming out of a devastating pandemic, that the people of Nottingham and the rest of the UK need. Instead, it is more interested in demonising minority groups and attempting to rig future elections in its favour.”