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The last month has had a distinctly rural feel, as I have visited farms, a vineyard, and spent a happy morning at the Ashford Market surrounded by cattle and sheep. There has also been a sporting element, as I have been at games at Ashford Rugby Club and Ashford United Football Club. Elsewhere I joined hundreds of people at the Model Railway Exhibitions around the town centre, and attended a very moving memorial service at Johnson’s Corner in Hamstreet. In Parliament we returned from the Easter recess to get to grips with the Rwanda Bill.

I am pleased that the Minister of State for Social Care, Helen Whately MP, has responded to my open letter on making social care better. You can see the open letter and my other work on reforming social care here.

In her letter, the Minister took the time to go through each of the four areas of reform I proposed and outlined what the Government is already doing in these areas. You can read the Minister’s response here.

I would like to thank the Minister for her response and while I am encouraged by this response, my work is far from over. I will continue to push for meaningful reforms to the social care sector and fight for a future where social care is accessible, inclusive and of the highest quality for all. My campaign has clearly shown the Government that hundreds of people up and down the country want to make social care better, now.

I would also like to extend my thanks to each and every one of my campaign supporters who has contributed to my campaign, by signing the open letter and sharing my message. It is because of their support that we have been able to make our voices heard at the highest levels of Government.

Eurostar

I took part in a really interesting discussion on “Bring back Euro Trains” with various rail experts and Ashford Borough Council. This is an important campaign for this year and beyond and I am pleased to see that over 50,000 people have now signed the petition calling for Eurostar services to be reinstated to Kent. It is clear that there is a huge pent-up demand to use Ashford Station for International Services and I am in contact with the Rail Minister about this on a regular basis.

In our Constituency

I’ve been very busy this month in Ashford, visiting many events across the constituency. Highlights have included celebrating English Tourism Week at Brabourne Vineyard, inspecting the Passing Out Parade for the latest group of Kent Police Officers, visiting Ashford Rugby Club, and hearing about the good work by Chris Dengate of Total Sports Coaching who ran a Government-funded camp for children on free school meals at Kennington School. I was also delighted to hear that groups in Ashford have been awarded £86,319 of funding by the National Lottery since November 2023. This will provide a huge boost to some of the brilliant grassroots projects in our community.

What’s happening in Parliament?

There has been a lot of activity in Parliament this month, including meeting constituents. I met with Ben and Amy Williams and their son Ollie from Ashford, who are campaigning for Spinal Muscular Atrophy to be added to the list of diseases covered by routine screening in new-born babies. I think this would be a very sensible step forward. I also met Henry Davies from Chartway Group at the Home Building Skills Showcase which celebrated young people who are learning new skills in the construction industry.

The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Adult Social Care, which I co-chair, launched its latest report ‘Future Care 5’ in Parliament, summarising policy recommendations from the Social Care Sector. The report has been developed following a programme of workshops with a wide range of organisations who have been involved in developing visions for the future of social care. At the event we were also joined by Helen Whately MP, Minister of State for Social Care, Sarah Owen MP (Labour) who is the new co-chair of the APPG, and Daisy Cooper MP (Liberal Democrat). You can find out more here.

It’s great news that this month, the State Pension has increased by 8.5%, Universal Credit by 6.7% and National Insurance has been cut, as a result of decisions taken by the Government. We have also seen a number of important Bill’s progress through Parliament this past month. The Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill, which will confirm Rwanda as a safe third country and deter illegal migration to the UK, has now passed both Houses of Parliament. I hope to see flights taking off for Rwanda as soon as possible. The Post Office (Horizon System) Offences Bill has also started its journey in Parliament which would automatically quash convictions of postmasters who were wrongly convicted as part of the Post Office Horizons scandal.

Select Committee Update

This month in the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee we have held evidence sessions on our British Film and High End Television and Grassroots Music Venues inquiries. We also held a regular scrutiny session with the BBC, partly linked to the publication of the Government’s Mid Term Review in January. You can find out more about my Select Committee work here.

In the Media

At the end of March I featured on BBC’s Any Questions. It was a lively debate covering topics such as the Rwanda Plan and getting people into work. You can listen to the programme here.

It was also great to add my thoughts to an article about the upcoming Olympic Games for Politics Home. You can read the article here.