Today I called for a legal right for care home residents to have visits from their loved ones.

The terrible consequences of banning families from seeing their loved ones in care homes is an issue very close to my heart. It is something that Labour has been campaigning on since the very first covid lockdown in June 2020. Indeed, we first called on the Government to bring forward a legal right for care home residents to see a family member or friend in February 2021. We continue to do so because, sadly, this issue has not gone away.

Throughout the pandemic, the Government have resisted calls for residents to have a legal right to see their family member. They have consistently said that the guidance they issued on facilitating visits was enough, but the guidance, which changed more than 30 times during the pandemic, is not enough, as we have seen time and again.

That is why I urged the Government to put a legal right in place.

You can read my speech here or watch it here.