| | | | | | What a busy month April has been! I hope that you all enjoyed the gloriously warm weather over the Easter Weekend, as well as a good helping of chocolate!
This month I have been out and about in advance of the local elections in May. It's been such a pleasure to have the freedom to be knocking on doors, or holding stalls on Gosport High Street and Stubbington Village once again. I always love taking the opportunity to chat to residents and hear their views and I've been so grateful for the warm welcome I have received when I randomly turn up on people's doorsteps! One highlight was with Cllr Sean Blackman, in Brockhurst and Privett, where we met a wonderful gentleman called Walter, a remarkable 100 years young! Remember to go down to your local polling station and vote on 5th May! | | | | | | | | | | | Locally, I am so pleased that Hampshire has had over 1,100 visas issued for Ukrainian refugees. I applied to welcome a family to my own home in Gosport via the Homes for Ukraine scheme and was pleased to see the forms processed very swiftly - even if they did take a while to fill in! If any of my constituents need advice or information on how to support Ukrainians into the UK then you can find more information at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/welcome-a-guide-for-ukrainians-arriving-in-the-uk or https://www.hants.gov.uk/ukraine. It’s been fantastic to see the local support for Bridgemary man, Volodymyr, originally from Ukraine, who is driving a van full of aid to the Ukrainian border every fortnight. Volodymyr and his colleagues have purchased a van and received an abundance of donated goods, however each trip costs around £1,200. Local people have raised around £2000 to support Volodymyr’s efforts and you can help raise funds to cover further trips. | | | | | | | | | | | | | This month has been a cause for celebration for a number of my constituents! It was really great to welcome local taxi driver Andy Orr to Parliament.
Andy is the owner of Taxi Lee on the Solent - one of the winners in the 2022 Parliamentary Taxi & Private Hire Awards. Andy was nominated by local people for great service & literally going the extra mile for his customers! | | | | | | I was also so proud of Motiv8 who were recognised at the Kids Count, Inspiration Awards in UK Parliament. They are such a valued part of our Gosport community, they literally change the lives of local youngsters who are struggling - helping them grow their skills, confidence and find their voice. | | | | | | | | | Many of you will know that I have been working closely with Charlotte Fairall, the mum of 10-year old Sophie Fairall from Stubbington, who heartbreakingly passed away from Rhabdomyosarcoma in September last year. This month I led a debate in the House of Commons on Childhood Cancer Outcomes. This is the first time this extremely important topic has been debated in full in the House of Commons chamber, despite the fact that cancer is the biggest killer of children under 14, and I welcomed contributions from MPs from all sides of the House. Watch my speech here or the full debate here. The Government’s 10-year Plan for Cancer is a one in a generation opportunity to move the dial on children’s cancer outcomes and asked the Minister for a Children’s Cancer Mission to be at the heart of this, focusing on raising the bar on how we detect, treat and care for children with Cancer. Charlotte and I also appeared on GB News prior to the debate to talk about Sophie’s journey. You can watch the interview here. | | | | | | | | | | | Back in the constituency, we’ve had a number of, what we affectionately call, 'hard-hat Fridays' this month! We had a tour around Fort Rowner in HMS Sultan and visited builders merchant; Covers, a great local business success story, who have been serving the South Coast for 175 years. It was great to meet the team at Covers Gosport to learn more about their history and how they are still making a difference, with their local customer service and support for community projects. | | | | | | It was fantastic to join Gosport Scouts, both at their brilliant Gang Show at the Thorngate Hall, and their St George’s Day parade this month. I'm very fortunate to be a local Scouting Ambassador and it was great to see everyone looking so smart in their uniforms in front of lots of proud leaders and parents! | | | | | | | | | | | | | I also joined Gosport Bowling Club Season Opening to deliver the first ball (pretty badly!) and see a rather nifty synchronised move called the ‘spider’ in action! You can see this here.
In addition to this, I visited Tangmere Aviation Museum, along with one of my Gosport constituents who volunteers there. It was fascinating to learn more about the history of the site and see the incredible collection of planes and military aviation history. I even got to sit in the cockpit!
| | | | | | | Regular readers will know that I am a big supporter of local businesses and I was honoured to attend the Portsmouth News Business Awards this month to celebrate some of our successes. | | | | | | | I also had a lovely meeting with Dottie - the Lee on the Solent entrepreneur behind the award winning British Craft House. It’s a hugely successful online platform selling handmade gifts and jewellery on behalf of small independent makers from across Britain. She’s a great champion for small business, a passionate promoter of British craftsmen and an ambassador for Small Business Saturday UK. You can find out more at https://thebritishcrafthouse.co.uk/. | | | | | | | | More excitement for our local area is on the cards as Southampton’s bid is one of the 4 finalists for City of Culture 2025. I was happy to show my support in Parliament for this alongside a number of other local MPs. The potential benefits to the winner of this competition are huge, attracting visitors and investment to our region and bringing communities together to showcase the things that make us so proud of our area to the rest of the country and the world! | | | | | | | | | | | I welcomed the news on the redevelopment of Daedalus Waterfront in Lee on the Solent. After a long tender process and due diligence, Homes England has confirmed that Murray Twohig Development, Orwell Real Estate and Patron Capital, as Daedalus Development Company, will lead the re-development of this part of the site. This eagerly anticipated announcement is the final piece of the jigsaw to bring the former RNAS Daedalus site into full use. I have been working on this since I was first elected in 2010, when I formed the Daedalus Strategy Group to plot a future for the disused military airfield . Since then we have seen millions of pounds of investment, thousands of jobs and skills training places created and new life breathed into this historic site.
These exciting new plans will see the remaining restoration of the site, with regeneration of historic buildings, new employment opportunities and commercial units alongside community spaces such as a public park in Seaplane Square. Watch this space for details of public meetings and exhibitions where you can find out more. Further to this, I was really pleased to hear that after 5 years of campaigning alongside local Gosport Conservatives colleagues, the brilliant new Police and Crime Commissioner, Donna Jones, announced that Gosport Police Station will not be sold off and that it will remain in the police estate. This is fantastic news for Gosport. It was great to join Donna and the new District Commander, Chief Inspector Fifi Gulam-Husen for a tour around the site. The building is huge, old and in need of renovation but has lots of potential. I am pleased to be working alongside Donna and Fifi to see if the site can be brought back into use in an imaginative way that both delivers a great base for the growing number of Gosport police officers and good value for local tax-payers! | | | | | | | | | | | Back in Westminster, I've been super-busy in the Chamber of the House of Commons this month! I spoke in the Second Reading of the Online Safety Bill. The Bill marks a milestone towards a new age of digital accountability. Protecting children from harmful content and tackling illegal content, while protecting freedom of speech. After 2 years leading on this Bill as Digital minister at Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport I will be following its progress with huge interest. - I asked the Leader of the House of Commons, Mark Spencer, for a debate on improving bathing quality water in our seas & rivers. Our waters are only tested May through September, and yet we need to know the Solent is safe for local people all year around!
| | | | | | | | | In DHSC Questions I highlighted the inequality of access to IVF treatment – it’s particularly unfair in Hampshire. I had a meeting with the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Sajid Javid following my question, and it was good to discuss how we can end this postcode lottery. I was pleased when he told me the forthcoming Women's Health Strategy - a piece of work that I started when I was a Health Minister 2018-2020, will address this issue. | | | | | Parliament has now prorogued until the Queen's Speech and State Opening of the new Parliamentary Session on 10 May.
This session saw a number of really important Act's become law, including the Health & Care Act, which introduces mandatory training for all health and care staff on Learning Disability and Autism.
This was work I started as Health Minister back in 2018, after I met a remarkable lady, Paula McGowan, whose son Oliver, had tragically died aged just 18, after being given psychotropic medicine, against his will, that he was allergic to. I was delighted to finally see the Oliver McGowan Training, named in honour of Paula’s son, enshrined into law. This training will save lives. | | | | | | | | Other Government announcements this month included: - The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy's Energy Security Strategy means that nuclear, wind, solar, hydrogen, oil & gas will all be expanded, with 95% of the UK’s electricity set to be low carbon by 2030. This will create 480k jobs by 2030 & increase our independence & security.
- Fantastic news that the UK Government is recruiting 13,576 more police officers as part of our safer streets pledge! For Hampshire & IOW this is 450 extra police officers recruited already with another 150 to go! Find out more at http://morepolicesaferstreets.com.
- Good to hear that council charges for disposing of DIY waste will end, with £450k grants for local authorities. This will support the Government to tackle fly-tipping & save households money.
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