2019

After many years of work, the electrification of the Chase Line is finally complete. I unveiled a plaque on Friday 10 May 2019 at a cross-party event with the Railways Minister, Andrew Jones MP, and Amanda Milling, the MP for Cannock Chase.

Many Members are trying on the captain’s hat, even though there is no vacancy for the captain of the ship, but as they look through the periscope, they will see that 200,000 nurses have left the NHS since 2010. If there is not a crisis, why are the Government having to recruit tens of thousands of nurses from overseas? It is because nurses are being driven out of the overstretched NHS owing to the lack of Government funding. Why are we seeing the first sustained fall in GP numbers in the UK in 50 years? Why are they leaving the profession? We also know that 30,000 ambulance staff have quit their jobs. I called for a statement from the Secretary of State for Health on this crisis.

The Trussel Trust, a charity that works to support food banks and aims to end poverty and hunger across the UK, has released its end-of-year statistics.

We are breaking records again, with the longest time without a Queen’s Speech. This is a bizarre state of affairs. I do not know of any other Government being run like this, particularly as there have been only five years since 1900 in which a Queen’s Speech has not taken place. It feels like the Government do not want to or cannot get their legislative agenda through Parliament.

HM Opposition Labour Party tabled the following Opposition Day motion on 1 May 2019 calling on Parliament to declare an environment and climate emergency: