2020 was a horrendous year. But the coming together of communities should give socialists hope.

2020 was the strangest of years. My first as MP for the City of Durham has been challenging to say the least. At times, it has felt as if we are living out a sci-fi movie, rather than Britain in 2020. It would be easy to write off last year completely, but there have been shafts of light in the gloom too.

At the last election, I was proud to stand on a manifesto that offered genuine, transformational change. I am also proud to have been part of the huge changes in the Labour Party, which brought members to the fore under the previous leadership. I supported Jeremy Corbyn in two leadership elections precisely for this reason: the country needed real change, and our members are central to that – not as foot soldiers, but as actors in our party and our communities.

Every day that passes, it becomes more apparent that the Prime Minister, his Government and the cronies who accompany this circus are not up to the task. We’ve seen a cycle repeated throughout the last year: denial of the scale of the coronavirus crisis, resulting in incoherent statements and panic measures, followed by a long-overdue U-turn – by which time the public has lost faith in the public health messages.

All of this is dangerous enough, but the Government’s mishandling of this crisis is not just about incompetence. While other countries have put their populations ahead of economic interests, the Tories were using Covid-19 an opportunity to enrich their friends. When local public health teams were telling them that local contact tracing, overseen by the public sector, was the most effective model, they were busy offering lucrative contracts to the private sector.

Trying to learn the ropes of a new role while this was all going on was not easy. As a new MP you are thrown in at the deep end. You just have to do your best to represent your constituents. At the best of times, this is a juggling act. At a time of pandemic, it becomes so much harder, with so many people in distress. I am so grateful to my office staff, who have helped so many people this year in very direct ways.

My political year has been very topsy-turvy, too. When I was elected, I had no real intention of being anything other than a backbencher. Having been a community development worker in the past, I’m keenly aware of the need to develop relationships locally and especially so in a constituency like City of Durham, which is divided between a University city and outlying villages, with very different issues.

However, I have also been a firm trade unionist all my adult life. So, when Andy McDonald, as Shadow Minister for Employment Rights, asked me to become his Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS), I really felt like I couldn’t refuse. The work that Andy is doing is so important. If implemented under a Labour Government, it would mean a complete shift in the way workers and their unions are treated in the workplace.

Sadly, just a few months later, I felt that I had no other option to resign my position. As a PPS, you are expected to vote with the whip, and when it came to the Covert Human Intelligence Sources Bill (or SpyCops Bill as it became known), I felt that I could not support the Labour leadership’s position on it. So, my brief elevation to a shadow position was over. I’m not sure many of my constituents would understand the logic behind all this, but that’s the way that Parliament works.

Looking forward, I am not pessimistic. While 2020 has been tough, we have also seen communities come together to defeat this virus – creating mutual aid groups, DIY support services and raising money for food banks. That community action has been inspiring and lays the foundation to ‘build back better’. As we finally see the light at the end of this tunnel, it’s important that we, as socialists and Labour Party members, expose the health inequalities that have ensured that the poorest and most disenfranchised communities have been hardest hit by the virus.

For the thousands of families who’ve lost loved ones and the millions who have been directly affected in one way or another, the last year has been just horrendous. But, as human beings, we must always look for hope in tough times. That hope lies in the good that people can do when they come together. We must never forget that – it’s why it’s important to value and treasure our membership in the Labour Party and make sure they are at the centre of rebuilding our regions and our country.

Mary Kelly Foy is the member of Parliament for Cities of Durham.

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