Letter to editors: Public Health England
Dear editor,
The Conservative Government’s decision to scrap Colindale-based Public Health England is a double whammy to the people of Barnet. On a very local level, it is a major local employer and its loss is likely to be keenly felt on the local economy. No one with expertise in disaster management would tell you to scrap the body overseeing the response to the biggest pandemic of our lifetimes in the middle of the crisis is a sensible thing to do – it makes fighting Coronavirus harder. This is a cynical political attempt to divert blame for the Government’s appalling failures in its response to the virus from the ministers responsible to the hardworking PHE scientists. As Sadiq Khan said in Mayor’s Question Time recently, it would be better to look at the organisation once the pandemic is over, and after a full review has been done. To do so now adds to the chaos and does the public no good.
Yours sincerely,
Andrew Dismore AM
London Assembly Member for Barnet and Camden
Cllr Anne Clarke
Labour candidate for Barnet and Camden
