Today is another key date as parliament meets for a vote on the agreement reached by Johnson and the EU.

I won’t be able to support this deal, it creates a hard border in the Irish Sea, hence the objection from the DUP, and as a United Kingdom Parliament we must consider the impact of this deal on the whole of the U.K.

But importantly the government have refused to provide an economic impact assessment to inform MP and allow it to be compared to earlier deals and my preferred option of Customs Union membership while leaving the Single Market but allowing close alignment. Even May allowed the economic impact assessment to be made available.

I talked to Granada Debates about the conflicting interests in the current debate and how difficult it is to make progress. I’ve always tried to remain open minded about a deal and for years made representations for a deal which protects the integrity of the U.K. and the economy of the country.

The votes will be extremely close today, whatever happens it is my belief that MPs in both lobbies are voting for what they believe is the right thing to do.

I can’t help but think that yesterdays Queens speech was a waste of time for everybody involved. The Prime Minister doesn’t want to let this parliament sit for long enough to enact any of the legislation that the Her Majesty put forward. It’s clear to anyone that thinks about the issue that the whole ceremony was nothing more than a cynical stunt by the government to make the Queen read a draft of the Conservative manifesto, when instead the Prime Minister should have been apologising for misleading her only weeks earlier.

There was no need for a Queens speech to introduce any of those planned bills, the government could have introduced them and extended the session. As we (eventually) saw with the Domestic Abuse Bill there are parliamentary means to ensure that progress on important bills isn’t lost when the parliamentary session ends. But we have spent enough time over the last three years going over the intricacies of parliamentary procedure, let us look at the substance of the speech.

The government has spent three years fighting with itself on Brexit, both the Prime Minister and his predecessor spent far too long ignoring the arithmetic in Parliament and look where that has got us: nowhere. It’s time for a common-sense solution to the issue, one that protects workers’ rights, environmental protections, consumer standards, and that upholds the integrity of the Good Friday Agreement with a customs union and a close relationship to the single market.

We’ve had nearly a decade of Tory austerity now; the economy is weak, productivity is falling, wages are lower than they were 10 years ago, there are more workers in poverty, more children in poverty, more people sleeping rough on our streets and more families without a safe and secure place to call home.

What did the Queens Speech have to say about towns like Oldham? Nothing. So much for Government’s commitment to the Stronger Towns Fund, they don’t have any plans to actually make them stronger. This was the Tory Party’s chance to make a pitch to towns like Oldham and they either forgot to mention what they could do for us or they simply just don’t care. I know which horse my money is on.

The parts of the speech about crime and justice, were nothing more than cynical headline grabbing attempts by the government in order for them to claim that the they are the party of law and order.

They cannot claim to be that party because they’re planning to hire 20,000 police officers, because it’s their fault they were cut in the first place. They cannot claim to care about justice given the state of our court system in this country, hundreds of them have closed and where they haven’t closed permanently only some of the court rooms are available for use because of the utter state of disrepair that this government has allowed to continue.

The rest of the announcements on public services just don’t hold water, the Conservative Party have been in Government for nearly ten years now. If they wanted to solve the issues the NHS has they’d have done it by now, if they wanted to make sure our education service fully supports our children they’d have done it by now, if they wanted to fix our prison system they’d have done it by now,  and if they wanted a strong economy that pays fair wages they’d have done it by now.

Oldham West and Royton MP Jim McMahon is optimistic that the move by Hays Travel to buyout all 550 Thomas Cook shops will lead to saving the two Thomas Cook shops in the constituency.

Jim McMahon MP said, “I am hopeful that this move will ensure that the jobs at the two Thomas Cook shops in Oldham West and Royton will be saved, and the hardworking staff are rewarded for their years of service.

“Hopefully all 550 of the former Thomas Cook shops can reopen after they are acquired by Hays, and there are no more job losses. I understand it’s difficult for Hays Travel to promise to open all shops within days, but the fact they plan on taking on all former Thomas Cook retail staff is finally some good news coming out of this sorry saga.”

“The fact that Hay’s see this as a viable business opportunity does raise further questions as to how the company was allowed to go under in the first place. Our high streets need a boost so the news that these shops may now reopen across the country is welcome news for our town centres.”

The Chancellor’s refusal to commit to ending social security freezes is a ‘travesty’ says Oldham West and Royton MP Jim McMahon. At Treasury Questions last week treasury ministers refused confirm that they will go ahead with lifting the social security freeze which was previously thought to be government policy.

Reacting to the news Jim McMahon MP said, “This is just another example of the Chancellor showing that he doesn’t care about poverty. The governments obsession with cuts have damaging effects in the real world for real people.”

“Here in Oldham West and Royton the social security system helps support over fifteen-thousand people, and I wish it didn’t have to. But it does and these people exist and, in some cases, require further support.”

“We know all about the rise in the number of foodbanks since the Tory government took over. We’ve heard the rhetoric about austerity being over. Now is the time to prove it by going ahead and ending the freeze as promised.”

Labour’s Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury said: “The Chancellor won’t confirm that his four year freeze to social security will be lifted next year, leaving the door open to further cuts to income for the poorest in our society.”

“14 million people are now in poverty in the UK, but all those struggling are an afterthought to this Tory government.”

“The Chancellor should immediately confirm that he will end the social security freeze in 2020, and set out his plans to fund this measure.”

OLDHAM West and Royton MP Jim McMahon has reacted to the findings of a report by EY and the Centre for Towns with regret. The joint report focuses on levels of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in our towns and cities, and it finds that ex-industrial towns like Oldham saw a 50% decrease in manufacturing FDI in 2018. Ex-industrial towns are disproportionately reliant on manufacturing projects, so a decline in the number of manufacturing projects attracted by the UK hits those towns harder.

Jim McMahon MP said, “This report shows that our towns need significant investment to balance the scales. Core cities across the UK continue to suck in foreign investment whilst investment in our towns continues to dry up. Despite the vast sums of money going into our cities there is little sign of this spilling over the borders into surrounding towns.”

He continued “The Core Cities programme has clearly been successful in attracting FDI to cities, whilst outlying towns and communities have seen investment flatline over the last twenty years. Trickle-down economics doesn’t work for people, it’s unrealistic to expect it to work for our towns and cities.”

“The report is entirely right in its four-point policy agenda for towns; bottom up decision-making through greater devolution, a reworking of the industrial and digital strategies to put place first, significant infrastructure investment by improving regional transport links and broadband, and an integrated towns strategy. Those four items are crucial, and they must be all be done together.”

“This is an issue we can deal with, if we devolve further and allow local people to make the decisions on industrial and digital strategies, if we invest in physical and digital infrastructure and we plan properly by incorporating economic, social and cultural aspects we can make our towns attractive. If people want to live, work and enjoy themselves in our towns they will thrive.”

This Monday marked the start of two weeks of global action by the climate activist group Extinction Rebellion.  The action the group plans to undertake will be disruptive and it’ll be annoying for commuters and the free flow of traffic, but I feel it is right to mainstream this debate and unfortunately that only happens when people’s attention is attracted.

Continue reading “Climate Emergency: Here’s the action”

Figures given to me by the House of Commons Library state that the percentage of claimants for Universal Credit in my constituency for August 2019 stands at 7.2% of our economically active population (16-64). This compares starkly nationally, with an average of 3.7% claiming Universal Credit, almost double.

I see this not as a failure of people in Oldham, I know our town is full to the brim of hardworking working-class people and that we are proud of what we do. However, I do see this as a failure of our Government (If we even still have one) to look after the needs of our regions and former industrial areas and its people.

 Continue reading “Oldham and Universal Credit”