Letter from Parliament - Liz McInnes MP

Liz McInnes

This week has some of those big set-piece events that pop up in parliament from time to time. The first activity of the week – and indeed of this parliament – is the election of the Speaker. The drama and ceremony around this has its place and is interesting to take part in, but frankly gets in the way of doing the real work of representing my constituents here in Westminster.

After the election of the Speaker, all the elected and re-elected MPs are sworn in and we can get back to the business of debating legislation and meeting in committees to scrutinise the work of our government.

Next week will include even more ceremony in the form of the State Opening of Parliament and the Queen’s Speech where we will discover exactly what David Cameron and George Osborne plan to do and then can work out whether to support or oppose the measures raised in the speech.

This parliament will be a long slog of sitting in committees and preventing the Tories making destructive cuts to people and communities, often those least able to defend their own interests so my staff and I will be working hard to speak up for those who can’t speak up for themselves.

In the next few months, as a Labour MP, I will also be taking part in the selection of our next Leader and Deputy Leader, which will be an interesting process and I will be looking to see who will be best placed to speak up for both Labour Party members but also the constituents of Heywood and Middleton as a potential prime minister in 2020. I would be interested to hear the views of Labour Party members and local residents about who I should be nominating in those elections.

In Castleton, we have had the sudden closure of Carcraft which has led to job losses in the constituency. I will be asking for an investigation into what exactly happened. As well as job losses our constituency can ill afford, people who have bought cars from there have been told that their service packages no longer apply, and whilst I would advise anyone affected in this way to contact the Citizens Advice Consumer Helpline (0345 404 0596), I will also be requesting that this is looked at as part of the investigation.

I’ve also visited Matthew Moss and Castleton Primary Schools. Matthew Moss to take part in an election special where year seven pupils were getting involved in the election process by creating their own political parties and having their own mini-election. A really good educational event and the children fired all sorts of questions at me, from what was the most exciting thing about parliament to how I'd resolve the situation in the Middle East.

Castleton Primary showed me the great work they'd done to earn a level one UNICEF award for 'Respecting Rights in Schools'. The children had done some lovely work around tolerance and equality and it was great to see them thinking about how they could help those in need as they planned a cake sale to raise funds for the recent disasters in Nepal.

You’ll be hearing lots more from me in the coming weeks and months once the House of Commons is back to business as usual.

Liz McInnes MP
Member of Parliament for Heywood and Middleton