I took the Prime Minister to task at PMQs this month, over his appointment of Gavin Williamson to the cabinet. 

"The Prime Minister stood on the steps of Downing Street and said that he wanted to restore trust, yet in the past 24 hours, we have seen that he is prepared shamelessly to swap red boxes for political support.

There are serious consequences to all this horse-trading, so I would like him to be clear on this point: did he seek or receive any advice on security concerns about the right hon. Member for South Staffordshire (Sir Gavin Williamson) before his appointment to the Government yesterday, given that the right hon. Member was sacked in 2019 for leaking sensitive information relating to our national security?"

I pressed the Minister on ensuring the Crown Estate and Government are both committed to sourcing components for the Floating Off-Shore Wind farm that we hope comes to Aberavon to be sourced locally.

"Floating offshore wind has the potential to transform the economy and jobs market in my Aberavon constituency and across south Wales, but it will only happen if floating offshore wind substructures and other components are manufactured and assembled locally.

There are two concerns: first, the Crown Estate is putting in place leasing criteria that seem to be about the highest bidder rather than maximising local value and content, and secondly, there are rumours flying around that the Government may be cancelling the floating offshore wind manufacturing investment scheme, which will be fundamental to facilitating the whole programme.

Will the Minister confirm that he will urge Crown Estates to maximise local content in the criteria and that the Government are 100% committed to the FLOWMIS programme?"

You can view my speech on the link below.

Floating Offshore Wind could be transformative for Aberavon - Stephen Kinnock - Labour MP for Aberavon

I again raised steel in the House this month and pressured the Government to do more to support our steelmaking industry.

"What Conservative Members seem to be failing to recognise is that they have had 12 years to deal with the massive disparity in electricity costs between ourselves and our nearest competitors?

There has been a total failure to have a procurement strategy that works for the UK steel industry and a complete absence of any action to support the transition to net zero. So rather than us take any lectures from Conservative Members, it is time they showed some humility and actually started to take some decisions about this vital foundation industry".

You can watch my intervention below. 

Britain Needs Its Steel As A Foundation Of The Modern Manufacturing Renaissance - Stephen Kinnock - Labour MP for Aberavon

This month in my Shadow Immigration role, I have held the Government's feet to the fire on their failures at Manston immigration detention centre.

You can view my speech via the link below 

The Conservative party has overseen the total breakdown of the asylum system - Stephen Kinnock - Labour MP for Aberavon

I also announced that Labour supports a points-based system - but it needs improvements to make sure we tackle the exploitation of migrant workers, which is also bad for British workers who might be being undercut and for employers who need to attract talent.

Our long-term ambition is to ensure that all businesses, in every sector, and our public services recruit and train as much home-grown talent as possible to fill vacancies, before they look overseas.

For instance, we need to train more home-grown doctors, hence our commitment to doubling the number of clinical placements and to setting out a five to 10-year workforce plan, which is desperately needed when we consider the 7 million person waiting list and the huge issues with workforce shortages and challenges.

We know that if we just turn off the tap of migrant labour, without the appropriate workforce structures and adequate training and recruitment in place, our public services will deteriorate and our businesses will struggle to meet our wider economic ambition to make, buy and sell more in Britain. In the end, it becomes a crutch, with more and more jobs eventually disappearing overseas.

You can watch my much more in depth speech via the link below.

Labour supports a points-based system – but it needs improvements - Stephen Kinnock - Labour MP for Aberavon

I questioned the Home Secretary on the fact that the Conservative government's recent legislation is making the asylum backlog even worse, with 16,000 asylum seekers having to wait an extra 6 months for a decision at great cost to the taxpayer. 

You can see me question the Home Secretary via the link below.

The Conservative government’s recent legislation is making the asylum backlog even worse - Stephen Kinnock - Labour MP for Aberavon

I further pressed the Tories on their utter failure at processing asylum claims. 

In 2012, the Home Office was making 14 asylum decisions a month; it is now making just five.

Tory Ministers like to blame covid, but the truth is that this is a mess of their own making. They chose to downgrade asylum decision makers from higher executive officer grade to lower executive officer grade, leading to a less experienced workforce on lower wages with lower retention rates and collapsing morale.

The inevitable consequences were slower decisions, more decisions overturned at appeal, an increasing backlog and ballooning taxpayer costs.

You can see more of my speech below.

The Tory backlog of 143,000 asylum seekers is the root cause of this hotel crisis - Stephen Kinnock - Labour MP for Aberavon

I attended the unveiling of Boris Nemtsov Place - an important tribute to a man who paid with his life for standing up to Putin.

It has been an honour and privilege to support my good friend (and now political prisoner in Russia) Vladimir Kara-Murza, his wife Evgenia and Camden Council to make this happen.

I chaired a productive meeting of the APPG for the Shared Prosperity Fund this month. It is vitally important that the UK Government keeps their promise to replace every penny of EU development funding and makes sure that constituencies like Aberavon aren't short-changed.

I also chaired a lively meeting of the Steel APPG where we heard from experts from Warwick University's research team, who told us about how Britain - including Port Talbot - can lead the way in green steel.

This will only happen if the UK Government understand the urgent need to invest in green transition & step up to the plate.

It was great to be able to go to visit the Defence College for Military Capability Integration recently, as part of Armed Forces Parliamentary Scheme.

I got to see (and try out!) some military kit & had several brilliant briefings on the action required to keep our country safe by equipping our Armed Forces for the decades ahead.