The Mayor of London has expressed his concern over increasing food and digital poverty that is particularly rampant in Asian-dominated boroughs of the city including Tower Hamlets, Brent and Southwark.
Such has been the depraved state of affairs in the UK that the Unicef recently announced it would be giving £25,000 to the Food School Matters project based in Southwark, providing more than 18,000 breakfasts over the Christmas and February half-term holidays to 25 schools in the area. And Sadiq Khan has been increasingly concerned about both food and digital poverty adversely affecting families from black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) communities.
Speaking exclusively with Asian Voice, he said, “I am concerned about vulnerable children in London including those in Tower Hamlets. Many children have not gone to school since March or have attended classes for a very short time. They don’t have laptops and are sharing one phone or computer with other children. I have been lobbying the government to roll out laptops which can be recycled and used by these children whose families cannot afford a
computer.”
Children going hungry in the fifth richest country in the world is a disgrace
Last week in a rather disgraceful fiasco for the Tory Party, an angry mum Going by the Twitter handle @RoadsideMum, shared a photo of a delivery which she estimated cost £5.22, rather than the £30 vouchers she is entitled to. The image had been shared more than 15,000 times on Twitter including by footballer Marcus Rashford and Labour Deputy Leader Angela Rayner. The photo shows items including bread, cheese, two carrots and a tin of baked beans which was supposed to be “sufficient” and to last the child for 10 days.
Speaking about the “absolutely disgraceful situation”, the Mayor said, “They were given inadequate supplies of food that wouldn’t last a day leave aside a week. It is a victory for all those parents and children that the government has now decided to give food vouchers instead particularly during these holidays. This allows parents and families to buy the food they need and children won’t go hungry. Children going hungry in the fifth richest country in the world is a disgrace.”
But this is not the only point of contention for the Mayor. He has also been at the forefront of ensuring that Londoners are vaccinated at the earliest for the early recovery of the businesses and city centre. However, fake news around the ingredients of the jab is likely to be causing some people from the UK's South Asian communities to reject the Covid-19 vaccine. Doctors have warned about the series of fake news messages widely circulated on social media including WhatsApp and Twitter which falsely claim the vaccines contain animal produce - eating pork goes against the religious beliefs of Muslims, as does eating beef for Hindus.
Covid-19 vaccine does not contain meat or pork
Speaking from the recently opened mass vaccination centre at Brent, Wembley, Mr. Mayor said, “Many Asian Londoners and people of Asian origin in the country are seeing some of this misinformation and fake news. Some are unfortunately believing it. I wouldn’t have gone to the mass vaccination centres if I did not believe in the vaccine. Many Hindu and Muslim doctors and healthcare workers are themselves receiving this vaccine and advising the community to take it.
“I know some people are fed this lie that the vaccine contains meat products which many Hindus may not find acceptable. There is also this misinformation that it contains pork which many Muslims may not like. The good news that I can confirm is that the vaccine does not contain meat or pork products. There is no reason why your religion should be compromised for the sake of public health.”
But while the Mayor may be keen on getting London back on its feet, he is confronted with the biggest financial crisis in keeping the TfL running. While he may have secured a temporary bailout of £1.8 bn for the Transport for London, Tory ministers such as Paul Scully have taken the occasion to ask if “London was truly open then why does Sadiq Khan
want to charge an entry tax?”
Not increasing entry charges
Responding to Mr. Scully’s claims, Sadiq Khan, said, “I am not increasing the entry charges. What Paul Scully should be doing is questioning his government as to why they are anti-London? His government is forcing Londoners to have strings attached to the money the government gives to the City. The Conservative government asked me to remove free transportation for children and for over 60s. I refused. They asked me to extend the congestion charge upto the North Circle club and South circle club and I refused. It is also the Conservative government that charges road tax to Londoners. We pay £500mn in Vehicle Excise Duty and it takes all of that money from London and does not give any of it back.
“My basic argument with the government is that during this pandemic, fewer passengers are using the TfL services. TfL is self-sufficient and contributes an additional amount to the functioning of the City of London. But now, we have less money coming in. If you aren’t willing to support us during this short time to pay for this service. Then how, else do we keep paying for these services? Unless the government provides the financial support the TfL requires in the short to medium term, I worry about the ability of the businesses in London to contribute to the country’s coffers. The government mustn't cut its nose despite its face.”
In the meantime, Mayor has hailed the first-of-its-kind Met Scheme where police force will start recording the ethnicity of people stopped in their cars in a move aimed at stopping the alleged targeting of people for “driving while black”.
Speaking about the pilot which was a key commitment in his Action Plan to improve trust and confidence in the Met police, he said, “We’ve listened and responded to the continued frustrations of Black Londoners, who are concerned that they are six times more likely to be stopped in a car than a white person, and this pilot will help us to begin to assess and address concerns about racial profiling and disproportionality in our city.
"Road Traffic Stops are an important tool the police have to keep Londoners safe but they can have a huge impact on community relations and deserve the same level of scrutiny as any other kind of police stop-and-search power. For many Londoners, that interaction is their defining experience of the police and that is why we are committed to carefully scrutinising the outcome of the pilot and acting on its findings. I have also written to the Home Secretary to ask her to make it compulsory for the police to collect and publish data on ethnicity for Road Traffic Stops."
