Catherine West MP MP for Hornsey & Wood Green and Labour Candidate for Hornsey & Friern Barnet
My latest e-newsletter has gone out to thousands of homes across Hornsey & Wood Green. You can read it below or online with all the photos here.
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Welcome to my April e-newsletterI hope you’ve all had a lovely Easter break, which of course this year coincided with Orthodox Easter, Ramadan and Pesach. I joined with cross party representatives as well as Jewish, Muslim and Church leaders at Finsbury Park mosque for the interfaith Iftar where I spoke about civic and faith communities’ unique role in safeguarding our precious planet.For many, Easter is a chance to get away and enjoy our beautiful coastlines and natural environment. But shamefully, the stink of the raw sewage being pumped into our waters every two and a half minutes since the Tories slashed funding for vital environmental protection, prevents our rivers and seas being safe to swim or play in.Yesterday, we gave Tory MPs the opportunity to support Labour’s Water Quality Bill and put an end to sewage dumping once and for all. Instead, disgracefully, they blocked it. How can it be right that water bosses are seeing their pay soar and shareholders are walking away with billions in dividends while the water companies miss their pollution targets?Only Labour has a plan to clear up the Tory sewage scandal.
If you know anyone who would like to receive these updates, please share this link.Young people’s mental healthThe House magazine’s research paints a damning picture of the state of mental health services for young people, and it’s a picture I sadly recognise from my casework. Soaring waiting lists, people in desperate need being told they don’t reach the threshold for care, and a postcode lottery with too many children missing out. Teachers are on the frontline but too often they don’t have the training, support and resources they need. On the first day of Parliament’s return, I raised this with the Minister at Education Questions and asked what action the Government is taking to widen access to crucial child and adolescent mental health services. The future of health and careThank you to everyone who attended my Parliamentary discussion on the future of health and care, and to Karin Smyth MP, the Shadow Minister for Social Care for stepping in to join Haringey Councillor Lucia das Neves, the Cabinet Member for Health, Social Care, and Wellbeing. Attendees shared their main concerns about our healthcare system; lack of access to primary care, healthcare for those with chronic conditions and adult social care. You can read my update from the meeting here and it will help to inform my work in Parliament on these vital issues.
The crisis in our criminal justice systemOver the Easter recess, I visited HMP Wandsworth. It follows on from my visit to the women’s prison HMP Bronzefield last summer and my recent meeting on the crisis in our criminal justice system. I also attended the interesting and informative Wood Green Crown Court open day. Crown Courts in England and Wales ended last year with a backlog of 61,737 cases – the highest since records began and – too many people are left waiting years for justice. Indeed, in all the discussions about Dominic Raab’s resignation following the report into his bullying, it’s important to remember that as well as being a bully he is also incompetent, having presided over the failings in our criminal justice system at the Ministry of Justice and at the Foreign Office during his time as Foreign Secretary. I remember all too well the desperate emails my office received as Kabul fell and the slow, dysfunctional, chaotic response of Raab’s Foreign Office that left so many people behind in Afghanistan while he relaxed on his beach holiday. Rishi Sunak showed appalling judgement in appointing him to such a senior position, and in keeping him in place for so long.
My latest Climate Change & Environment UpdateYou can read my latest Climate Change and the Environment report here and I enjoyed meeting constituents who came to Westminster as part of Extinction Rebellion’s lobby of Parliament. Following the publication of the report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, I used Treasury questions this month to push the Minister on the Government still giving energy companies an easy ride through the lucrative loopholes in the energy windfall tax. Black maternal mortalityThe Women and Equalities Committee report into racial disparities in maternal mortality is damning, and you can read it here. It’s an issue I’ve been raising in Parliament for several years. I hosted a constituency zoom chat during the pandemic, wrote to the then Health Minister Nadine Dorries and have tabled a series of Parliamentary Questions. It’s appalling how little the Government has done to address the issue – and the Maternal Disparities Taskforce hasn’t even met for nine months. Labour would act to close this glaring gap. My Month in NumbersLast month 1,216 of you wrote to me on policy issues. Unsurprisingly, the Government’s shameful Illegal Migration Bill was top of the pile, with residents appalled at the cruelty of this government and their shameful treatment of vulnerable refugees. I voted against the Bill and when it returns to the Commons will be supporting amendments to ensure victims of modern slavery, pregnant women and unaccompanied children receive the support they need. I also hosted a small roundtable discussion on refugee education with the Reverend Matt Lunn, Jakki Hollands, Cllr Peymana Assad and Dr Nooralhaq Nasimi from the Afghanistan & Central Asian Association. We discussed the important role of education, the vital work so many community organisations play in helping refugees to settle into communities, and the need for much more co-ordinated support with housing, the right to work and trauma support. I’ve received lots of emails from people calling for the ban on onshore wind farms to be lifted. I completely agree and recently voted to unblock clean, cheap onshore wind energy in the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill. A Labour Government would end the Government’s effective moratorium on onshore wind – which since 2015 has effectively lost us clean power capacity equal to all our Russian gas imports over that time – and instead double our capacity by 2030. We would also double offshore wind capacity by 2035, triple solar power by 2030 and embrace tidal power. Since my last report, I’ve asked 41 Written Parliamentary Questions and you can view the full list here.I’ve spoken in the Chamber on the anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, where I highlighted the role of civic society including Quaker House in Belfast – you can watch my contribution here. Following the Government’s statement on the Infected Blood Inquiry, I asked about support for the children of the bereaved, including my own constituent, and slammed the lack of psychological support for those affected by this heartbreaking scandal. I also took part in the petition debate on the impact of Brexit, and used my interventions to highlight the damage caused to our creative industries and to tourism by making it harder for school trips to visit London from the EU.
APPLY NOW: Catherine’s Politics Summer SchoolI’m delighted to have opened applications for my fourth, ever popular Politics Summer School for 16-19 year olds taking place from 17-21 July. It’s a great opportunity to learn more about politics at a national, local and regional level and you can find out more and apply here. Closure of Wood Green Post OfficeGood progress continues to be made on bringing vital Post Office services back to Wood Green. But every day without a local branch is a blow for the residents who rely on them. You can read my latest update on my website, including my letter to the Chief Executive of the Post Office urging them to confirm a summer opening date. Crumbling school buildingsFor some time now, Labour has been raising our concerns in Parliament about the state of so many school buildings, including buildings at the end of their life span, asbestos on school estates, and pushing the Government to release information about the scale of the problem and the safety implications. I’m in close contact with local schools in Hornsey & Wood Green about these issues and have written to the Education Secretary to raise my concerns and call for support for schools affected. Here to help youLast month my office responded to over 1,425 casework emails. I’m continuing to hear from a worrying number of people who are being issued section 21 notices as rents continue to soar. Labour will continue holding the Government to account on their woeful failings to act, despite promising rental reform legislation for four years now, and their woeful failure to build the social housing we so desperately need. I had several emails from residents over the desperately sad state of Finsbury Park following Tough Mudder. I had it on my agenda for my meeting with Haringey Council’s Leader & Chief Executive but am relieved that the Council acted promptly in saying the event will never take place there again. Our inner city parks are vital green spaces and must be protected for the community to enjoy.
China – Ministerial scrutinyIt may be the start of the new Parliamentary term session, but Ministers are still ducking their responsibilities in answering my Questions. After the much-heralded announcement of an uplift in Mandarin teaching in Whitehall in the recent Integrated Review I asked the Government for more details. Disappointingly they failed to answer all three. Time and again they treat scrutiny like something they can duck, but China poses one of the greatest foreign policy challenges that we face and both Parliament and the public deserve better. In the House, I also raised the issue of the intimidation, surveillance, and tracking which many students from China and elsewhere experience. This is particularly alarming given reports of operating Chinese “police stations” here in the UK and I was pleased my colleague Yvette Cooper, as shadow Home Secretary, was able to raise this in her Urgent Question. MyanmarYet again the brutality of the regime in Myanmar has been in the headlines, with the horrific use of military aviation against civilians taking dozens of lives. I have once again renewed calls for a ban on the export of aviation fuel to the regime to prevent these attacks happening and to save lives. The international community should not stand by and let these attacks happen with impunity.
If you’d like to speak to me at one of my regular advice surgeries, held by telephone and in-person across the constituency, find out here how to book an appointment. My website also has helpful information and support for residents struggling with the cost-of-living crisis.
Best wishes,Catherine