Covid: Fifth Anniversary

James Asser Excerpts

Thursday 12th June 2025 Commons Chamber

[James Asser (West Ham and Beckton) (Lab)]

I bet to move,

That this House has considered the fifth anniversary of the covid-19 pandemic.

I start by thanking the hon. Member for Harrow East (Bob Blackman) and the Backbench Business Committee for granting my request for this debate. I also thank all hon. Members who supported my application. I approached the Committee because it is important that we mark the fifth anniversary of the pandemic.

It was an extraordinary time in our lives and for the nation. In some ways it feels like a dream. Five years on, it seems hard to believe that we actually went through such a period of disruption. The impact has been huge and long-lasting, even if we do not acknowledge that on a day-to-day basis.

I should say that I do not intend to talk about, and neither do I hope this debate becomes about, the origins of the pandemic, the way it was handled, personal protective equipment, the then Government, or any of the inquiries or legalities. There will be plenty of time for those discussions, and no doubt this House will have plenty of opportunities to talk about those things in future. I want this debate to be about people and communities.

We lost a lot of people to covid, and the impact on those who lost loved ones was significant. It cut across communities, ages and faiths. Most of us will have had covid. All of us will know someone who has been affected. Many of us will know people who died and will understand the impact of the grief and loss combined with the shock of a pandemic. There were funerals unattended and people who had to die alone. As the current Prime Minister said at the time,

“People are frightened by the strangeness, anxious about what will happen next. And we have to remember that every number is a family shaken to its foundation.”

It is not just those we lost whom we must remember. The country kept going through the incredible hard work and bravery of our frontline workforce, but it also carried on because of schools, community groups, places of worship, volunteers and people just being good neighbours. Without them, we could not have kept going. I know from experience in my community that the work of volunteers was vital. They put their community first, above and beyond their own needs, as did our frontline workers, from those in the NHS and care homes to bin men, social workers, the emergency services and transport workers, to name just a few. There is a danger as we get into the politics and the legalities that we will forget the many workers on whom we quietly relied, or that we will allow their contribution to be underappreciated. They deserve to be recognised and for their efforts to be applauded.

During the lockdowns I was a member of the Newham council cabinet, with responsibility for much of the public realm, including waste and recycling. I remember the posters attached to the wheelie bins thanking the bin men for their work and for coming out during the lockdown to clear rubbish. In normal times we perhaps do not think about the people who collect our bins, other than to curse a little if it is an early morning collection or mildly panic on realising that it is bin day and the bins have not been put out. In this time of stress, the role they played was emblematic of so many of our key workers, and it was great to see residents sharing their appreciation.

Across Newham, over 650 residents volunteered their time with the council’s #HelpNewham initiative to support the borough’s most vulnerable. There were also more than 500 covid champions, who helped to distribute information and advice to their communities during the pandemic to keep people informed. Those are the people who made such a difference and provided vital support to the local council at a time when it was stretched by delivering vital services in a borough with a high number of vulnerable people and a high rate of infection and casualties.

We often talk about the numbers, but it is important that we understand the sheer scale of the impact that the pandemic had on our communities. My borough lost more than 1,000 people to covid. It was one of the worst-hit places in the country, and at the beginning of the pandemic it was the worst-affected place in the UK. It is extremely easy to lose sight of the impact when we talk about the numbers, and the larger the number, the greater the danger that it becomes a statistic and the individuals behind it are lost. Behind those numbers are real people, real stories and real lives, and we must never forget that. That is backed up with stories of compassion and kindness from families, friends and NHS doctors and nurses. It is vital we find ways for their names and faces to be remembered, and for their families to gain comfort from that memory.

The inspiration for this debate came from my staff during a visit to Plaistow Park. It is there that Newham has created its permanent memorial to covid. In the middle of the crisis, I was certain that we would need to find a way to mark it for local people. It was clear from the scale of the pandemic and the lives lost that there would be national and regional memorials. Indeed, Newham hosts the London blossom garden, a memorial for London, in the Olympic park, which is in the constituency of my neighbour and hon. Friend the Member for Stratford and Bow (Uma Kumaran). The national memorial wall has also offered much to many people.

Given the impact on Newham, however, we needed something dedicated to our local people. A monolithic memorial felt wrong. This was not a war memorial; it needed to be something that reflected the nature of the people who were impacted. It needed to be a memorial for all—young or old, single or with a family, religious or not. It had to be a space for everyone. What was designed was a memorial garden in one of our parks, created with the help of our parks team, landscape architects and local artist Matt Ponting. Importantly, it was created in consultation and discussion with local people, and designed to work for all in our community. It is a landscaped area in a previously little-used part of Plaistow Park in my constituency, in the centre of our borough, with trees and flowers, seating and its own paths and works of art, in which people can sit quietly, pray, reflect or enjoy it with others. On the day of its opening in 2023, more than 100 local people turned out, including one local resident who had lost his father. Still grieving the loss, his appreciation for having a place that he could visit, and that meant that his father and those who died had not been forgotten, is something that struck me and that I remember vividly.

All politicians hope that they will have a legacy, and we all have ideas of what we might like to achieve. I did when I started as a councillor, and I even realised some of them. But if I had to leave just one thing behind me, I think it would be that garden. Sadly, there is no database of memorials, and no online guide to what has been put in place, but we will all know of something that has been done to recognise the impact of covid. We need to create some form of guide or register so we can ensure that such memorials are not lost for the future. We know that good work has been done.

Researching the background to this debate, I came across some wonderful examples, such as memorial gardens in Telford, Oldham and Enfield, memorial woodlands in Wokingham and Hornchurch, and a memorial mosaic in Barrow. I hope we will hear more examples from hon. Members this afternoon. These spaces are vital, not just for now, but for the generations that come after us. We cannot allow the legacy of the pandemic to be the preserve of documentaries, textbooks and history lessons. It should be a legacy rooted in our communities, celebrating the sacrifices and contributions that were made and remembering those who are no longer with us—not as the statistics they are recorded by, but by the lives they lived.

This year is the 85th anniversary of the beginning of the blitz, which started in my constituency. It was in the east end of London that the phrase “blitz spirit”, which we still use, emerged—a spirit of standing firm and working together as a community. We saw in 2020 how strongly that still existed and, when the chips were down, the strength of our communities. Perhaps we should now be talking about pandemic spirit, and talking with pride about how that spirit shone through across our communities.

Today, I hope that we can contribute to that spirit in this House. I hope the debate will provide comfort for those who are remembering loved ones. I hope it helps to ensure that all who went out to work to keep things going in those difficult days get their recognition. I hope it helps to shine a light on the army of volunteers who stepped up and helped when it was needed most.

[Several hon. Members rose—]

--- Later in debate ---

[James Asser]

In the few seconds I have, I just want to say that I thought it was important to have this debate so that the fifth anniversary did not pass without being marked. It is clear that we have merely touched the surface of what could be said, but I thank hon. Members across the House who have contributed. Much has been said, and there is clearly much more to say. I put on record my thanks to my constituents for all they have done. I hope that all the families and all those affected who have been watching will feel that this debate has been important in recognising the past five years, acknowledging that there is more to be said and that we will talk further about it.

Question put and agreed to.

Resolved,

That this House has considered the fifth anniversary of the covid-19 pandemic.

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Ms Nusrat Ghani)]

I thank all Members, and I especially thank the Minister for being so swift at the Dispatch Box.