Alison Bennett's Monday Mail: When the farmers came to town

Welcome to my Monday Mail. 

As your Liberal Democrat MP for Mid Sussex, I write a short email each Monday sharing what I have been doing and thinking about in the past week.

When the farmers came to town

I spent time on Tuesday joining the farmers’ protests and meeting Mid Sussex farming families. The farmers who came to meet me wanted to tell me why they are so fearful and angry about Labour's family farm tax. For readers who aren’t farmers and want to understand why an estimated 13,000 farmers took to the streets last week, I would encourage you to read this article by James Rebanks that gives a flavour of the years of neglect by past Conservative governments. Labour’s plans to bring in inheritance tax for farms feels to me like the final straw. As Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats Daisy Cooper explained on Question Time, because farmers are vital to our food security and because they are guardians of our natural environment, we think Labour has made the wrong call, and that is why we are calling on the government to scrap these plans, and finally give farmers the support that they deserve.

Carers’ Rights Day

Last Thursday was Carers’ Rights Day. 

CarersUK marked the day by publishing a report into the impact of caring on employment. Here are some of the findings:

• 5.8 million people across the UK are providing unpaid care for an ill, older or disabled family member or friend.
• Nearly 3 million of those are also working in paid employment.
• Juggling work and care is difficult with 44% of carers in employment saying that they have had to reduce their hours or take a more junior role.
• This in turn has a negative impact upon both carers’ finances and the carers’ own health.
• 43% of carers who have given up work to care say that this has had a negative effect on their mental health. 

You may remember Ed Davey talking about his life as a carer in a party political broadcast during the general election. I have just rewatched it whilst writing this email, and it has made me cry all over again. The Liberal Democrats will keep fighting for carers, because we think that carers have been neglected for a very long time and because carers make an enormous contribution to holding society together. 

I hope that if you are a carer, or if you care for someone you love but don’t give yourself the tag of ‘carer’, you will take some comfort from knowing that we see you and will keep fighting for you. This tweet from ‘All on the Board’ really spoke to me.

Hello BlueSky

I am now on BlueSky (as well as Facebook and X/Twitter). The social media landscape is changing in ways I certainly don’t claim to understand, but I will do my best through these platforms as well as traditional leaflets, weekly Middy columns and regular emails and the website to keep you up to date on my work for people across Mid Sussex.

Getting in touch

My parliamentary email address is: alison.bennett.mp@parliament.uk. If you need my help, please get in touch and I will do my best to help. 

I am pleased that the backlog of letters and emails that built up immediately after the general election is getting smaller thanks to my lovely and dedicated staff. Response times are still not as quick as I want them to be, but we are making progress. 

Best wishes,

Alison

PS: If you’ve enjoyed this week’s Monday Mail, please spread the word and tell your friends by forwarding it to them. Anyone can sign up here.