Dear Constituent,

Andrew Gwynne, MP for Denton and Reddish, has raised concerns about policing in Greater Manchester after research has exposed major issues with the Government’s police officer recruitment pledge, which would leave Greater Manchester almost 1,000 officers short.

Since the Conservatives came to power in 2010, local police forces have lost 20,564 officers. The new Prime Minister Boris Johnson recently announced plans for 20,000 new officers which he said would be “on the streets”, but in reality only 13,000 will be on the frontline in local forces.

In Greater Manchester, the force has lost 1,704 police officers during the past 9 years of Conservative rule – a 21% drop.

The first year recruitment targets that the Government has set suggest that Greater Manchester will get around 5.8% of new police officers meaning that by 2022, the force might expect to have around 750 new officers – around 950 fewer than it had when Labour left office in 2010.

Andrew Gwynne said:

“After nine years of devastating cuts to our police, the Tories seem to have finally woken up to the fact that you can’t keep communities safe on the cheap.

 

“However, Boris Johnson’s pledge of 20,000 new police officers has now been exposed as yet another deception – even if he delivers the 13,000 new officers that are actually being proposed, Greater Manchester will  still have almost 1,000 fewer than we did in 2010.

 

“The police play such a vital role in our local communities and it is incredibly disappointing that the Tories continue to deprive them of the appropriate funding and resources.”

 

Andrew Gwynne, MP for Denton and Reddish, met with the British Heart Foundation (BHF) at the Labour Party Conference in Brighton to discuss the need for urgent action to clean up the nation’s air.

Every year in the UK, air pollution is responsible for 11,000 heart and circulatory deaths. Fine particles, known as PM2.5, are so small that we can’t see them in the air around us or avoid inhaling them as we breathe. They then enter the bloodstream, where they can increase the risk of heart attack or stroke.

The UK currently subscribes to EU legal limits on PM2.5. However, these are not as strict as the guidelines recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO), which the BHF is calling for the UK Government to adopt.

As the largest independent funder of cardiovascular research in the UK, the BHF is committed to accelerating research into understanding the impact that air pollution has on the heart and circulatory system, and how to combat it.

BHF-funded research has already shown that air pollution can damage the inside walls of the blood vessels, causing them to stiffen. The effects of air pollution can also restrict the movement of blood vessels, which can increase a person’s blood pressure and put strain on their heart. It can also make your blood more likely to clot.

All of this can put people living with some existing conditions, such as coronary heart disease, at increased risk of heart attack or stroke. Worryingly, there are an estimated 10,000 people living in Denton and Reddish with a heart and circulatory condition. Air pollution can also have a detrimental impact on people with healthy hearts.

During the party conference, Gwynne met with the BHF’s policy team to discuss why air pollution is a public health emergency, and the BHF’s call for the Government to commit to adopting WHO guidelines on air pollution by 2030.

Andrew Gwynne said:

“It was great to learn about the work that the British Heart Foundation in doing in the fight against air pollution.

 

“It is clear that air pollution is a public health emergency and that action needs to be taken urgently to clean up our air.

 

“I agree with the BHF that adopting the WHO’s guidelines would be an important step in the right direction in achieving this goal.”

Simon Gillespie, Chief Executive of the British Heart Foundation, said:

“Air pollution can have devastating impacts on the heart and circulatory system, as well as the lungs.

 

“Air pollution is the biggest environmental threat to health in the UK, with around 11,000 deaths a year from heart disease and circulatory conditions like stroke attributed to long-term exposure to polluted air.

 

“We need to see stricter guidelines on air pollution as a matter of urgency. We’re delighted that Andrew shares our commitment to ensuring that we have clean air that is safe to breathe.

 

“We now need Government to put this commitment into practice by including binding WHO air quality limits in law and guaranteeing our air is safe to breathe by the end of the next decade.”

 

 

Andrew Gwynne, MP for Denton and Reddish, has presented staff at the Denton branch of Althams with a certificate and wine in appreciation of the support that they have given to holidaymakers caught up in the collapse of Thomas Cook.

Thomas Cook – a tour operator and airline that had been around for 178 years – ceased trading on 23 September, leaving around 9,000 staff in the UK without jobs and around 150,000 British tourists stranded abroad.

Staff at Althams worked to find alternative arrangements for their customers who had booked Thomas Cook holidays.

Andrew Gwynne said:

“The collapse of Thomas Cook was devastating and unwelcome news.

 

“In the aftermath, staff at Althams worked tirelessly to help local customers on Thomas Cook holidays.

 

“They really did go above and beyond, so I thought that I should show our local community’s appreciation for their efforts.”