Legislation and local issues

Breakfast clubs are a lifeline for a lot of local families, providing parents with crucial childcare and giving children the best start to their day. That’s why I’m thrilled that our constituency is one of the first to have early adopter schools as part of Labour’s free breakfast club rollout. Because working parents deserve support and a government that backs them: strong action, not empty words. I sat on the committee that scrutinised the legislation that introduced breakfast clubs and this is just one small part of the measures the Government is taking to help families.

Another announcement from Westminster outlined how military housing across the country will begin to be transformed by Labour under a new Consumer Charter, with Defence Secretary John Healey promising to “stop the rot” in military housing. The Charter will form part of Labour’s Defence Housing Strategy, to be published later this year, which will set out further plans to improve the standard of service family homes across the country.

The new Charter will introduce basic consumer rights for forces families – from essential property information and predictable property standards, to a new robust complaints system. These are all changes that the Conservatives could have put in place but failed to, and will be underpinned by new, published satisfaction figures, putting forces families front and centre.

There has also been further investment this week into our GPs services, with £80m now available to support GPs in getting patients care in the community, rather than being sent to A&E. I have written about the NHS many times in the column, and I am pleased to see the continued investment and support for local services to help people where they need it.

I recently held a drop-in session at a local supermarket in Morecambe, where shoppers were able to chat with me about issues or concerns they have. I’ll be running similar sessions in the future as I find it a great way of getting to informally chat with constituents and pick up on local issues.

I have regular constituency meetings and over the next few weeks I’ll be meeting with group worried about housing, Special Educational Needs issues, healthcare problems and international relations. Being able to support my constituents on such a range of issues is a great privilege and I want to remind you to get in touch with me if you need some support.

My casework team are also holding weekly sessions in Morecambe to help with specific issues. If you need support or want to book an appointment with my team, please email me on [email protected]