GOOD MORNING and welcome to my South West Surrey update No.187. Not what you would call a quiet week with the Prime Minister narrowly surviving a vote of no confidence, new train strikes announced, a select committee grilling of the Health Secretary on GP shortages and a bitterly disappointing decision to allow drilling to go ahead in Dunsfold.
WHAT’S GOING ON IN WESTMINSTER
NO CONFIDENCE None of us went to work on Monday morning expecting to participate in a confidence vote the very same day but this is a very febrile Westminster so perhaps we shouldn’t have been. I have been arguing for some time this was not a good time to have the debate given Ukraine but sufficient numbers of my colleagues sent their letters in so the vote was announced. Some MPs kept the way they voted to themselves but I have had - literally - thousands of emails from South West Surrey residents on the issue and felt I owed it to you to be transparent as to which way I would vote. It was an agonising decision because I have always been a natural loyalist, but I decided in the end we should change our leader. I set out my reasons for doing so here and in more detail in today’s Herald column. In short, I don’t think under this Prime Minister we are giving the country the leadership it deserves and that as a result we are heading to defeat in the General Election. We’ll find out if I’m right or wrong in due course but now that we’ve had that vote I’ll obviously respect the outcome and continue working hard both as your local MP and as Chair of the Health and Social Care Select Committee.
NHS AND CARE STAFF The next day we had a very important Select Committee session with Sajid Javid on his plans to fix the staff shortages we are seeing in the NHS and social care systems. This has been a theme of mine for some so it won’t surprise you that I pushed him hard on when he will actually publish the number of additional doctors, nurses and other staff he thinks we need to train. He confirmed we would get some numbers in a workforce strategy due by the end of the year but I’m not convinced these will be the numbers we actually need (rather than the numbers the Treasury has agreed to fund) but it is a start. I also wanted to know if Amanda Pritchard, the CEO of NHS England, plans to bring back a system where everyone has their own family doctor. If you see the same doctor for a prolonged period of time (as we used to have until the early noughties) you are 30% less likely to end up in hospital and 25% less likely to die so this should be a top priority. It also features strongly in my new book Zero - please forgive the plug but all proceeds go to charity so it is in a good cause! You might also like this Daily Express interview in which I talk about the issues raised in the book.
ECONOMIC CLOUDS Bill Clinton famously said we should look at the trendlines not the headlines - and the most worrying trendline right now is the declining prospects for economic growth. The OECD issued a stark warning on Wednesday when it predicted that the UK would see the slowest economic growth amongst developed countries, second only to Russia. Of all the things on the government’s plate this is surely the most significant in the ‘urgent and important’ in-tray because literally everything else flows from it: funding for the NHS, help with cost of living, defence spending to counter the Russian threat and of course the prospect of tax cuts. It sounds like the Chancellor is going to try and encourage business investment in the Autumn Budget which is a good place to start but the whole government needs to be focused on this.
HOUSING BOOST One area the Prime Minister does seem keen to address is helping people get on the housing ladder. In a speech today he unveiled plans to allow people to put their housing benefit towards a mortgage. With £30bn in housing benefit currently being paid on rent this is surely worthwhile, including extending security for people renting in Housing Associations by extending Right to Buy.
YES THERE IS SOME GOOD NEWS…believe it or not on Covid. In the last week of May 1 in 70 people in England had Covid compared to 1 in 45 people in the week ending 7th May. As of 10am the Covid dashboard shows that we have had a total of 22,238,713 positive cases of COVID-19 with 177,977 confirmed deaths in the UK. There have been 42,282 confirmed cases in Waverley and sadly 330 confirmed deaths, with an estimated 81 active cases in Waverley. In the last 7 days cases are up 2.4%, deaths down 29% and hospitalisations up 9.9%.
Nonetheless that key number is 0300 200 1008 for anyone with pandemic related difficulties. Also please check out my full list of local groups working to support vulnerable residents.
WHAT’S GOING ON IN SOUTH WEST SURREY
TRAIN STRIKES have now been announced by the RMT for 21, 23 and 25 June with a wave of tube strikes on 21 June just to make things even more miserable. It is clearly planned to create a week of chaos in which trains are likely to be disrupted even on non-strike days. I will be in touch with more details about how local services are likely to affected next week but this is surely the wrong thing for unions to be doing on every level: firstly because taxpayers paid £600 per family to keep the trains running during Covid; secondly because virtually no one else is the 10% salary rise and if they were inflation would be here to stay); and finally because it cannot be the right thing to make the public suffer even more when everyone is already feeling squeezed by the cost of living crisis.
SURGERY STORIES Only one call to report this week (a couple were on confidential issues) It was to an orthodontist in Godalming who needs CQC approval to open his new premises. He is worried it may delay his opening which would obviously be a bad thing given the national problems in accessing dentistry, so I will write to the CEO of the CQC. He also talked about removing some of the bureaucracy currently required for Ukrainians wanting to access NHS dentistry which I will take up with Sajid Javid. Access to dentistry is rising right back up the agenda.
DUNSFOLD DRILLING DECISION The government's decision to allow drilling and fossil fuel exploration in Dunsfold is wrong and a bitter disappointment both for me and for local residents. It will have damaging repercussions for the environment, local businesses and the Dunsfold community as well as being against the long term objectives of climate change policy. Surrey County Council has already rejected the application so to ignore the strength of feeling about this and press ahead regardless shows complete contempt for local democracy. I have written to Michael Gove (see my letter) urging him to reverse this flawed decision and will speak to him about it at the earliest opportunity. I will also consider whether we can take this decision to the High Court although this is very difficult to do successfully.
COMMUNITY SPIRIT Since the Homes for Ukraine scheme began, Cherry (a retired English teacher) from Godalming, has been working hard to support Ukrainian refugees joining our community by offering them English lessons. Cherry now runs regular sessions in The Baptist Church on Queen Street in Godalming on Mondays and Fridays, and has been bowled over by the resilience and gratitude of the Ukrainian people. However, in order for Cherry to be able to continue hosting these invaluable sessions, she does need further funding - mainly for books, as they are struggling with resources. If you feel you are able to contribute to the running of these classes, please do get in touch with Cherry directly via email: [email protected]
GODALMING MUSEUM Covid hit the volunteer sector very hard, with fewer volunteers returning after lockdown ended. Our brilliant Godalming Museum has lost 60% of its volunteers, and is currently searching for replacements. They would welcome people of any age from 16+ with an interest in the history of Godalming, or simply wanting to do their bit for the community. The museum is open Thursday - Sunday 11am - 3pm (in 2 hour sessions). If this is of interest to you, please do call Viv on 01483 426510. It really would be a great shame for them to have to cut their opening hours, especially having only just fully reopened!
CREATIVE FARNHAM Don’t forget that this Saturday marks the beginning of Creative Response’s long awaited summer exhibition in Farnham (11am-5pm). They are open this weekend (11th and 12th), next Saturday 18th June and then on Tuesdays-Thursdays 10am-3pm until 7th July. I saw some great pieces in progress when I visited back in April, so I highly recommend carving out some time to drop by.
AND FINALLY what a brilliant Jubilee weekend that was…with amazing celebrations we all enjoyed watching on TV and some wonderful events across the patch locally. I have met the Queen many times and all I can say is that even though we know that logically she is just another human being there is something about her that makes grown men quake! Thanks to Mary Grove and all in Hambledon for the wonderful Hambledon street party attended by the Hunt family in which my music choices were rather revealed by the vigorous way we all danced to Sweet Caroline…
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