The big news of the week in Parliament was getting the Safety of Rwanda Bill through and it is now an Act of Parliament. We finished around midnight on Monday to get it through and it was chilling to hear five people had died trying to cross the Channel on Tuesday, including a young girl. Alongside our policy of sending those who do not qualify for asylum back to their countries, this should make people think again about paying large sums of money to people traffickers who are the real criminals in this. The Home Secretary was in Italy this week discussing how to prevent people crossing the Mediterranean where thousands of people have died in boats. This is one of the reasons why I support our aid policy that helps build resilience in other countries but sadly it seems impossible to stop wars.
On a more cheerful note, a coach load of constituents came for a tour this week along with six students from Havant college – two of whom will be undertaking work experience with me in June. The tour guides were good and I enjoyed having a chat with everyone in Committee Room 14 - one of the more famous committee rooms. Some stayed on to listen to questions in the Chamber before heading home on the coach. I hope it gives a different aspect to parliament rather than what we read about in the media and I am looking forward to another coach party in June.
There was excellent news on Wednesday with the announcement of 2.5% of GDP spent on defence, it has been around 2.3% this year with more spent on contingency funds for Ukraine. This means an extra £75bn over 6 years. There is a recruitment and retention issue with our armed forces at present and I meet regularly with the Defence Secretary and other interested MPs to discuss how we can deal with these issues. I am particularly keen on Rick Haythornthwaite’s review of UK Armed Forces incentivisation and its 67 recommendations. I have asked that an update comes soon to the Chamber on how we are progressing with them as they have all been agreed by the Government but we need to make sure that they are put into practice. You can read his report here: Agency and Agility: Incentivising people in a new era - a review of UK Armed Forces incentivisation - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
One of my favourite jobs in Westminster is the chair of the Wine GB All Party Parliamentary Group. This has been set up to lobby the Government on our fastest growing agriculture product. They had a bumper year last year and I was surprised not to hear that being mentioned on the news today as they talked about how wine production around the world has fallen except France which has grown by 4%. In fact, in the UK, it has grown by 25% last year and continues to rise. We have some amazing wines in our area. To prove the point, alongside the AGM on Monday evening, we had a wine tasting of seven British wines. It made the long evening of Rwanda voting less arduous! I am now lobbying for a change in how wine duty is placed as it is difficult to judge the ABV of wine until it is open. I am also asking for clearer labelling so consumers know the grapes and production of wine are all from the UK and not imported grapes. It is also becoming a big tourist attraction and some vineyards such as Hambledon and Raimes in our constituency are building facilities for tourists for dining as well as tasting the delicious award-winning wines.
On Tuesday we passed a bill to regulate the ownership of football clubs and there was no opposition to this. On Wednesday we had the third reading of the Renters Reform Bill. This will now go to the House of Lords where I expect there will be changes. We need to balance the obligations of both landlords and tenants and I hope that we will get it right for both sides in the final legislation.
This week we announced that we will be banning disposable vapes. Five million are thrown away every week in the UK, which is shocking especially as they can be recycled and parts reused. We are bringing forward legislation to ban wet wipes with plastic in them too, not only is this good for the environment because of the microplastics which they break down into, but they are also clogging up the sewage pipes and causing them to overflow.
I have been out in the constituency looking at the River Itchen in Tichborne, which is in excellent health and attended the Business Improvement District’s AGM last night. Tonight, I will be in Durley with Southern Water to hear about what they are doing to stop the flooding and endless tankers. I will be doing the same with Hambledon when I can get a date.
I won’t have time to write a newsletter next week as I will be out all day on election day and all night at the count. Don’t forget to vote and take ID with you.
Have a good weekend.
