🐝 This week, many of you have written to me to share your concerns about the government’s plan to lift the ban on neonicotinoids. I fully support these concerns and along with my labour colleagues will be campaigning to stop this. The Labour Shadow Environment Secretary has asked for an urgent meeting and we will be seeking a vote in the Commons. 

🇪🇺  I also know many of my constituents are concerned about the government’s withdrawal from Erasmus+. I’ve signed Taiwo Owatemi MP’s letter calling on Gavin Williamson to improve it’s replacement, the Turing Scheme, so we have a proper exchange programme for students now & in the future.

😷  Unfortunately I didn’t get the opportunity to speak in yesterday’s important debate on Long Covid, but you can read here what I was planning to say. We need to stop treating Long Covid like a peripheral issue, and instead invest in research needed to better understand it, improve care pathways and publish statistics on how many people are suffering from this long term illness.

🏠 This week I once again pledged my support for the #EndOurCladdingScandal campaign, calling on the Housing Secretary to address this crisis and make sure no leaseholder is forced to pay through no fault of their own. 

💉To ensure the successful rollout of the vaccine programme, it’s more important than ever that the government is scrutinised and held to account. On Monday, during a session of the Public Accounts Committee, I put questions to senior civil servants to scrutinise delivery of the vaccine programme. 

📰  Following a previous Public Account Committee report, I wrote a piece for Politics Home demanding the government learn the lessons of previous broadband rollouts and ensure gigabit broadband is available to everyone.

🍔 The government’s piecemeal response to Covid means the hospitality sector has been forced to continually operate in a volatile and uncertain environment – without adequate support. I wrote to the Minister to call for urgent action. 

🍽️ Whilst the government continues to prioritise the pockets of their donors, resulting in families across the country receiving completely inadequate food parcels this week, I have been continuing to campaign for the Right To Food to be enshrined in law, so that no government can get away with what this government is. 

💚 And a date for your diary! On the 28th January I will be joining Sheffield’s Labour for a Green New Deal to discuss how the city can tackle the climate crisis and create a localised Green New Deal.