GOOD AFTERNOON & welcome to my weekly update - no.265.

I travelled down to Surrey from Oxfordshire this lunchtime where I was marking new figures showing the UK has come out of recession with a much larger than expected 0.6% increase in GDP in the first quarter of this year, the joint highest in the G7. You can hear my interviews with Nick Ferrari on LBC, Sky news, and Good Morning Britain here. Locally, it was great to see Lisa Townsend re-elected and I am sure she will continue her brilliant work as Police and Crime Commissioner keeping Surrey one of the safest counties in Britain.

WHAT’S GOING ON IN WESTMINSTER 
 

BRITAIN OUT OF RECESSION This morning we had the good news that Britain is out of a recession. The underlying data is even more encouraging: more jobs created than anywhere in Europe since 2010, more greenfield foreign direct investment than anywhere except the US and China and (according to the IMF) faster growth than Germany, France, Italy or Japan over the next 6 years. For families the best news is probably the Bank of England Governor saying yesterday he was optimistic we could start to cut interest rates soon. Labour were predictably trying to rubbish the good news but as I said in this clip yesterday and during my exchange with Rachel Reeves in the House of Commons on Tuesday, there really are signs that the economy has turned a corner.

WHAT’S GOING ON LOCALLY

LISA’S BACK  Brilliant news that Lisa Townsend was re-elected as our Police and Crime Commissioner for Surrey. We now have just under 400 more police officers in Surrey compared to 2010 and burglaries have halved. But still we have too much rural crime so I look forward to continuing to work with Lisa. A huge congrats also to my brilliant team in Waverley for the strong PCC results we achieved for Lisa in our area.

CONSUMER COUNCIL FOR WATER Mike Keil CEO of the Consumer Council for Water came to listen to views of constituents last Friday following the challenges we have been having with Thames Water. Lots of work ahead to ensure they pay compensation and upgrade our infrastructure to reduce spillages and outages.

GUILDFORD COUNCIL Some terrible news coming out of Guildford as a new report has found that weak governance at the Borough Council and poor scrutiny created a culture that potentially allowed millions of pounds to be defrauded. The council has apologised and pledged to adopt the recommendations. This matters to us because the LibDems are trying to do a back door merger between Waverley and GBC - please sign my petition here if you are concerned about the risks involved.

CONSTITUENCY CALLS My first call was to someone running a Godalming accountancy firm about issues concerning the tax paid by expatriates working in the UK. I then had a fascinating conversation with Richard Graham, the owner of ONE 40 in Cranleigh about the challenges of running a high street shop in the current climate. Richard and his team do an amazing job keeping a family business running successfully in the heart of the high street - and the Hunt children love all the sweet treats in the cafe!

SHERE INFANTS SCHOOL I also had a surreal but delightful return to my very first school - Shere Infants. Headteacher Victoria Voller and Governor Trevor Skerritt kindly welcomed me to discuss the future of small village infant school provision and how to deal with lower class numbers post-covid. We also discussed variations in SEND funding allocations which can have a big effect on smaller schools. I will raise the issues with Tim Oliver, Leader of Surrey. as there are local infant schools impacted across my current constituency too. It was a very lovely trip down memory lane and they kindly took me to the classroom where I learned to read. 

CRANLEIGH SCHOOL GRILLING I also had a brilliant yet challenging afternoon being quizzed by the students of Cranleigh School. Great questions which the politics teachers obviously enjoyed putting together - and impressive to see how well informed the students were.

TOURS I had a fun meeting with constituents at the end of a tour of the Houses of Parliament tour before I dashed off to PMQs. They asked me an array of questions including why I become an MP, eligibility for IVF, how we are improving the NHS and how to expand GP provision in Haslemere.

HUNTER CENTRE the Hunter Centre in Haslemere is running a full schedule over Dementia Action Week to help individuals and their loved ones who are dealing with dementia. Their programme starts on Monday 13th May and there will be events on every day– from a carers’ information day, to an open evening at the centre. For more information have a look at their website here.

BLACKHEATH FETE I had an amazing afternoon at the 50th anniversary of the Blackheath Fete. Absolutely brilliant, nothing commercial, everything £1 a go – I couldn’t keep my screen-obsessed kids away from all the fun!
 

KEEPING LOCAL HISTORY ALIVE Keeping local history alive is of tremendous importance to our communities and in keeping up with technological advances, the Thursley History Society is excited to announce the launch of its new website. This has most of the society’s archives now digitally uploaded to make it available to all. So, if searching for long lost relatives or looking for information on the history of your house, it is all available to browse in an easy to search format. The photographs and information included are amazing and certainly worth a look. Who knew one small village tucked away in rural Surrey could contain such stories of murder, crimes of passion and horrifically tragic accidents? The website will be launched on Saturday 1st June between 6-8pm at Thursley Village Hall. Entry is free and refreshments will be served. Come along and bring friends, neighbours and children - all are welcome! 

CANVASSING We had an energetic week of campaigning last week with the PCC election and the Witley and Milford by-election and then in Cranleigh with the Conservative Women's Organisation. Do get in touch if you are keen to join these – great exercise in the sunshine!

SOCIAL MEDIA If you would like more regular updates of my work locally and nationally, do follow me on Facebook, X (Twitter), WhatsApp or Instagram. 

JOIN ME Want to get more involved locally? Email me at [email protected] to join my growing team supporting our work in our community. 

AND FINALLY… As a dog-loving county, a highlight of any election day has to be the social media trend of pictures of dogs at polling stations… My labrador Poppy stayed home when I went out to vote but here are some highlights from across the country.
 

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