Jo Stevens: outpouring of support for MP in hospital with Covid

Politicians from across the political divide have sent best wishes to the Labour MP and shadow culture secretary Jo Stevens, who is being treated in hospital for coronavirus.

The Cardiff Central MP has been “laid low with Covid for a while”, according to a statement from her team on New Year’s Eve.

On Saturday, they tweeted from her account: “Jo has asked us to let you know that she is being treated in hospital for Covid. Thanks for all your good wishes, we will give an update when we can.”

The 54-year-old was elected at the 2015 election, winning the seat back for Labour from the Liberal Democrats. She was shadow secretary of state for Wales for a short while under Jeremy Corbyn.

She is the fourth MP known to be taken to hospital with Covid, including the prime minister, Boris Johnson, who ended up intensive care in April. Her Labour colleagues Yasmin Qureshi and Tony Lloyd were also admitted to hospital, with Lloyd spending 10 days on a ventilator in an induced coma.

Qureshi, the MP for Bolton South East and a shadow minister for international development, said she had been left “anxious and concerned” after being taken by ambulance to her local hospital in October. In an interview with the Guardian last month she described the “unbearable pain” caused by coughing fits and pneumonia as the disease took hold.

News of Stevens’s illness prompted well wishes from across the House of Commons.

The health secretary, Matt Hancock, said he wished Stevens a “speedy recovery”.

The Labour leader, Keir Starmer, tweeted: “Get well soon Jo, a dear friend and colleague.”

Mark Drakeford, Wales’s first minister, said: “All of our thoughts and best wishes are with Jo for a speedy recovery. Thank you to Jo’s constituency team for continuing to support Cardiff Central constituents at this difficult time.”

In November she wrote to the culture secretary, Oliver Dowden, calling for the government to clamp down on platforms that host “anti-vax” content.

During the pandemic, Stevens has lobbied for more support for the culture sector, which she said was in “complete despair”.

She told MPs in October: “In arts and culture, experienced, skilled and talented live performers, and the people who create, produce and make those economically successful events happen, are being treated by the Treasury as though their jobs were mere hobbies.”