Source: OGL


Listening to you -
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**October Special **
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*Listening to you at my recent 'Meet your MP' event at the White Horse pub in Bearsted*


** What you are telling me... **
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Listening is more important than talking. That might seem a strange thing for an MP to say, known as we are for making speeches and being on the telly. But it’s only by listening that we know what the people who elect us are most worried about and want us to fix.


I’ve been doing a lot of listening recently. In the run up to the Harrietsham, Lenham and North Downs by-election I knocked on hundreds of doors alongside our candidates. And I’ve met many more people at my recent 'Meet your MP' events around the constituency.


There are several concerns that keep coming up, so that’s what I’m going to focus on in this newsletter.


**Stop the boats **


Without a doubt the number one topic is immigration, especially stopping the boats. Small boat crossings are now at an all-time high, and asylum claims have hit record levels.


When my Party was in Government, we made mistakes, I know that. But we were starting to get immigration back under control.


We made returns agreements to send asylum seekers back to the country where they came from. And they worked. Our deal with Albania cut the number of Albanians coming here on small boats by 90%.


We negotiated a deal with Rwanda, which we knew would have a similar deterrent effect.


This Government has no real answers. They scrapped the Rwanda Scheme and replaced it with gimmicks like their failed: 'one-in, one-out' plan. We’ve just seen one of those ‘one-outs’ come back on a small boat. We did warn them!


Time and again when my party was in Government our plans to stop the small boats were delayed by legal challenges. People who should have been deported often got lawyers involved to keep them in the UK. This usually involved the Human Rights Act and the ECHR (European Convention on Human Rights).


Earlier this year Kemi Badenoch, the Leader of the Conservative Party, launched a review to establish the pros and cons of leaving the ECHR. After weighing up the arguments, she has decided that a Conservative Government would leave the ECHR and repeal the Human Rights Act.


This will have implications for some international treaties and our relationship with Ireland. But, Kemi and her Shadow Cabinet agreed these can be overcome. Security of our borders is paramount.


If the Conservative Party wins the next General Election we will introduce our BORDERS Plan:


- **S**upport our allies to prevent illegal entry to Europe.

Some people say stopping illegal immigration is easy. They say ‘just turn back the boats’. I’m afraid it’s not that easy and anyone who tells you so is taking you for a fool. What we need is a properly worked out plan, which fixes the ‘pull factors’ and makes sure Government has the power in practice to act.


**Operation Brock**


I know from personal experience just how much pressure Operation Brock puts on our road network and how HGVs try to avoid the queue by rat-running on roads like the A20 and A251.


Blocking up Kent's roads isn’t fair on local residents or businesses. We need to treat this as a UK-wide issue rather than a Kent one, and find a solution which doesn’t bring our roads to a standstill every time there’s disruption at the ports.


That's why I have started a petition which I can take to Ministers to show that local people have had enough and push them to find an alternative solution.

 

Please support my Stop Brock campaign and sign my petition [here]([link removed]). 


**London Boroughs housing their tenants locally**


More and more people are raising concerns about London Boroughs housing their tenants here in Kent with me. This is putting extra pressure on our schools and health care and I share their anger and frustration with the situation. I have raised this over and over.


I keep being told that there really is not much that can be done to stop London Boroughs from buying up properties on the open market. But I don’t believe it can be impossible to stop this, it’s just a matter of the will to do so.

I have discussed it with the Shadow Minister for Housing and will be raising it again with Ministers. I will be doing some research into just how many people from London Boroughs are being housed in the Home Counties and Kent in particular, and I will use that data as the basis to press the Government for change.

I want to assure you that I share your concerns and agree this practice needs to stop. The only question is how it can be done and I will keep you up-to-date with my progress.


**Where next...?**


I am working my way around the constituency, meeting as many of you as possible in cafes, pubs and even retirement villages. If you’re keen for me to visit your area please let me know. You never know it might already be on my list! 


My next regular newsletter will be published in early November in time for Remembrance Sunday to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II.


*Listening to what people in Hollingbourne had to say at the Signal Box Cafe at the Station*


If there's anything else I can help you with please email me at [email protected]

Please pass this email onto anyone you think might be interested and encourage them to sign up to these newsletters on my website, [here]([link removed]).


*Copyright © 2025 Member of Parliament for Faversham and Mid-Kent, All rights reserved.*
 

House of Commons, SW1A 0AA, London

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