Today's Headlines

Home Sec urged to record hate crime against Chinese community in bid to end it

The Liberal Democrats have called on the Home Secretary to tackle coronavirus-related hate crimes against the Chinese community, including requiring government officials to collect data on the ethnicity of hate crime victims.

• The call comes amid concerns about incidents of racially-motivated hate crimes against people in the Chinese community during the coronavirus pandemic, with Sky reporting that at least 267 offences were recorded by the police in the first three months of 2020.
• Despite the reports, Minister of State in the Home Office Kit Malthouse confirmed in a response to a parliamentary question from Liberal Democrat MP Christine Jardine that the Government does not know how many anti-Chinese hate crimes there are, because "Information is not routinely collected on the ethnicity of victims.
• Everyone should be free to live their lives without fear of discrimination, abuse or violence. Reports of Chinese people in the UK experiencing racist incidents linked to coronavirus are therefore deeply alarming.
• The Home Secretary must step up and tackle this appalling trend head-on. That work cannot be effectively undertaken unless the Government records and tracks these crimes, so I urge the Home Secretary to enact that change today.

Lib Dems: UK death toll shows Govt must answer to public inquiry

The figures published yesterday by the ONS showed the number of deaths linked to coronavirus has risen over 30,000, the highest official toll yet reported in Europe.

• Every single one of these deaths is a tragedy, leaving tens of thousands of loved ones grieving.
• As the Government begins to look at relaxing the lockdown measures, they must be transparent with the public. The figures announced today will leave many understandably worried about some of the measures that have been or will be taken, and the only proper way to reassure them will be to publish in full the evidence Ministers use for whatever they propose later this week.
• The figures released yesterday morning are heartbreaking, but also further demonstrate the need for a public inquiry into the Government's response to the coronavirus crisis. The British public will want to know whether the Government could have done more and they deserve the answer to that question.

Lib Dems call for urgent child benefit uplift to cover the gaps in "deeply flawed" free school meal voucher scheme

The Liberal Democrats are calling for the "deeply flawed" voucher scheme for administering free school meals during the lockdown to be bolstered by cash to families, in the form of an uplift in child benefit of £150 per week per child, and £100 for every subsequent child in the family.

• Too many vulnerable children are still falling through the cracks and going hungry. The Government needs to acknowledge that this voucher scheme is deeply flawed and provide parents with an urgent child benefit uplift of £150 per child.
• For parents in rural areas, increasing cash available to families would make it much easier to get food for their kids - at the moment, their only local shop is unlikely to be part of the scheme. And the complicated online system unfairly disadvantages families with low incomes and poor internet connectivity.

Govt must extend transition to avoid risk of further economic shock

Yesterday Tánaiste Simon Coveney's remarked that progress in negotiations to reach a post-Brexit trade deal "has not been good".

• Unless the Government does the right thing and extends the transition period we risk crashing out without a trade deal, inflicting a double whammy just as we try to recover from the current crisis.
• The NHS, food supply chains and the economy are all already under huge amounts of pressure. People are rightly worried about their jobs and their loved ones. We need to put Brexit issues to one side for now in order to focus on protecting the most vulnerable.