Holocaust Memorial Day

Holocaust Memorial Day

Today - 27th January - marks the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the infamous former Nazi concentration and death camp Auschwitz-Birkenau. Along with people across the UK - and internationally - I will be remembering all the victims of the Holocaust and subsequent genocides.

The Climate and Nature Bill

My colleague, MP and ocean rower Roz Savage brought her Private Members’ Bill to the House of Commons on Friday for its second reading. The Climate and Nature Bill is a plan for a new UK law that would address the full extent of the climate & nature crisis, and I have been supporting it since the general election. 

In the weeks running up to the debate, it looked as though Labour were set on voting the bill down so that none of the measures would ever become law, and on Thursday afternoon it was reported that a Labour rebellion was in the offing. There were rumours that Labour whips were instructing their front benchers to be in Westminster to out number the rebels.

Roz negotiated hard, and managed to get the Secretary of State Ed Miliband to make a number of concessions. On the basis that a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush, Roz decided that it was better to bank what was on offer rather than lose everything and make no progress.

During the debate I intervened in a speech from a Conservative MP about car manufacturing and got a surprising response. 

My first PMQ

Last week also saw me get my first opportunity to ask Keir Starmer a question. Following on from my Adjournment Debate on Sixth Form Colleges, I pushed him on whether he had intended not to give all sixth form teachers the same pay rise last summer. You can judge his answer for yourself here.  

Getting in touch

My parliamentary email address is: alison.bennett.mp@parliament.uk. If you need my help, please get in touch.

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

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