I dropped into the Jubilee Room on 28 June to meet the businesses at the event hosted and put together by Mims Davies MP for Mid Sussex.  Marples Cakery makes cakes for special occasions and provided lovely cupcakes. Marples Cakery was founded by Alice Marples.  They can be found at www.MarplesCakery.co.uk  Also there was The Sussex Crisp Company which makes crisp with potatoes with their skins on and are delicious. They can be found at: www.sussexcrisps.com 

The Mug Tree Tea Room is a family run award winning tea room. It was voted 2nd best UK venue for breastfeeding in 2018 and runner up Best Cafe Award 2018. I am pictured with my colleague Virendra Sharma MP. We sampled gluten wise brownies and mini scones. They can be found on Ship Street East Grinstead RH19 4EF.

I was unable to attend Parliament owing to other Parliamentary business. HM Opposition held an Opposition Day debate (allotted day 19) on Tuesday 27 June 2023 and put forward two motions: 'Mortgage and Rental Costs' and 'Repurposing Russian Assets to Rebuild Ukraine'. On Mortgage and Rental Costs the shadow Chancellor moved the motion that "this House is extremely concerned that, under this Conservative Government, average mortgage costs will be increasing by £2,900 per year, with a typical household in the UK paying over £2,000 more per year than in France and over £1,000 more than in Ireland and Belgium, and that renters face huge increases in rent payments; condemns the Government for its slowness in acting to support millions of homeowners and renters and so alleviate the impact of its policies; calls on the Government to bring in mandatory measures, as the current voluntary measures could lead to around one million homeowners missing out on support, and to immediately adopt measures to ease the mortgage crisis and halt repossessions by guaranteeing support from lenders for struggling mortgage borrowers and strengthening the rights of renters; in particular calls on the Government to require lenders to allow borrowers to switch to interest-only mortgage payments for a temporary period, to lengthen the term of their mortgage period, to reverse any support measures when requested and to make mandatory repossession restrictions; and further calls on the Chancellor of the Exchequer to instruct the Financial Conduct Authority to urgently issue guidance that the credit score of borrowers should be unaffected by any temporary switches to interest-only mortgage payments or lengthening of their mortgage period and to introduce a renters’ charter that would end no-fault evictions immediately". The motion was rejected by Government MPs.

On Repurposing Russian Assets to Rebuild Ukraine the Labour Member for Tottenham, Mr David Lammy, moved the motion that "this House condemns Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine; stands in solidarity with Ukrainians in their resistance to Russia’s invasion of their sovereign state; recognises the enormous damage that Russia’s invasion has caused to Ukraine’s infrastructure, economy and institutions; commends the recent commitments made by the Government to support Ukraine’s recovery during the Ukraine Recovery Conference 2023; and calls on the Government to present a Bill before this House within 90 days to allow frozen Russian state assets held in the UK to be repurposed for Ukraine’s recovery". The House endorsed this motion, and the Question was put and agreed to as resolved.

The Summer Reading Challenge is here again. At the Parliamentary Drop-in the Reading Agency presented the books they are donating. The Challenge encourages children aged 4-11 to keep reading during the summer holidays.  Your local library will have details and will issue the books. In England the Challenge starts on the 8 July 2023. 

This year the "Ready, Set, Read," is all about games and sport. Children will join a fictional team as they weave their way through a summer obstacle course. This year the challenge was developed with the Youth Sport Trust and encourages children to engage in games and sports in a way that suits them best.  To find out more: www.readingagency.org.uk 

The Publishers Association held an event in Parliament on 21 June 2023 to celebrate the success of the publishing world. The Chief Executive of the Institute of Publishers said this was the most successful of the creative industries. This year the author highlighted was Bonnie Garmus.Bonnie Garmus (left) spoke about how she had a stutter when she was young and visited the library and met a librarian who encouraged her to read books. She found her voice in writing. The Publishers Association presented her book "Lessons in Chemistry". 

Kim Leadbeater MP and Kim and Jo's parents Jean and Gordon with me (above) to continue the work of the Jo Cox campaign to promote the good work to keep people meeting and talking over tea and biscuits donated by Fox's who are based in Kim's constituency, Batley and Spen.

I am pictured with my colleagues Tan Deshi MP, Ruth Cadbury MP  and Kim Leadbeater MP, Kim and Jo’s parents Jean and Gordon and Maureen and Peter in the Jubilee Room to celebrate the great get together to promote a day when people can meet and  talk to each other.