Please find below a summary of my activities for the next week for your information.
Monday
On Monday, I will be in Parliament. The main order of business for the day is the continuation of the debate on the EU Withdrawal Agreement. As the Parliamentary Private Secretary to Labour’s Brexit team, I will attend the debate but will be unable to speak. I’ll also be attempting to ask a question to the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government about land banking. This is the practice of companies buying up land but refusing to develop it. This is a particular issue in Hull and reduces the supply of housing in the city making it harder for people to get onto the property ladder. Following this, I will be having a phone call with the Children’s Commissioner about internal exclusions in schools. While teachers should definitely be able to remove disruptive children from their classrooms to make sure that they don’t disrupt the learning of others, putting a child into isolation for a lengthy period of time to do menial activities such as copying from a textbook will seriously damage the education of that child. I will be asking the Children’s Commissioner to issue guidance on the proper use of these internal exclusions that schools can follow.
Tuesday
On Tuesday, the House of Commons will be voting on Theresa May’s Brexit Deal and Political Declaration concerning the future partnership. I will join other colleagues from all parties in voting down Theresa May’s disastrous deal for the country in line with the wishes of many of my constituents. I will also be trying to ask a question to the Chancellor of the Exchequer to ask him to provide more money for youth services as a method of tackling the anti-social behaviour that has blighted some areas of Hull.
Wednesday
It isn’t entirely clear what will happen after the result of the vote on the Withdrawal Agreement is announced. It currently looks like the Government will be defeated but there are any number of scenarios that could play out after Tuesday. It is therefore very difficult to say exactly what I will be doing on Wednesday and Thursday although I expect that I will be in Parliament during that time. I have a phone call with Emma Latimer, the chair of Hull CCG. Among issues I will be raising with her is the issue of headlice and the availability of bug busting kits and guidance on wet combing. Bug busting kits cost the NHS less than £5 each and can be used time and time again, this means they are cheap, efficient and reusable and a good investment for the NHS. I will also be attending meetings of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Mesh and Labour Friends of Local Government.
Thursday
On Thursday, I will be asking a question to the Leader of the House of Commons, Andrea Leadsom, about Endometriosis. While I have been campaigning on the issue for a number of months now, it is still vital that awareness is raised. Predictions by the charity Endometriosis UK show that 1 in 10 women in the UK suffers from endometriosis. I will be asking the Leader of the House whether we can have a debate about the topic to raise awareness of these issues. I will spend the rest of the day working on casework issues for my constituents.
Friday
On Friday, my meetings will include a visit to meet with the Yorkshire Brewing Company and Susan Lea, Vice Chancellor of the University of Hull.
