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Last Saturday, Pembrey Country Park became the centre of attention as it proudly hosted the Wales National Armed Forces Day celebrations.
Armed Forces Day is our chance to honour all those in the entire Armed Forces Community. Whether deployed, supporting from home or inspiring the next generation, they all play an important part in keeping us safe and secure.
At the last General Election I stood on a Labour manifesto that promised to renew the nation’s contract with those who serve. Our Armed Forces Bill delivers on that promise with better housing, better services and better protections for our forces and their families.
The Bill creates a new Defence Housing Service that puts forces and their families first, backed by a £9bn strategy to build, renew and repair tens of thousands of military homes. while kickstarting the development of 100,000 homes on surplus defence land, with personnel and veterans first in line.
The Armed Forces Covenant is the nation’s promise to deliver fairness for serving personnel, veterans, families and the bereaved. For the first time, this Labour government will extend the Armed Forces Covenant across all areas of government. This means social care, employment support and other public services will be legally required to fully consider the unique circumstances faced by forces personnel, veterans and their families,
All those who serve our country must be able to do so with dignity and respect. That’s why we’re improving support for victims and ensuring the Service Justice System can better protect those who experience the most serious offences.
The first duty of this nation is to keep its citizens safe – as threats grow, we must step up and take decisive action to boost preparedness in an era of ever-increasing threat.
My message to the Armed Forces community is clear: this government is on your side.
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The UK Armed Forces are set to receive the largest ever drone investment within the Defence Investment Plan, with more than £5 billion over the next four years towards new technology and infrastructure to keep the nation at the leading edge of innovation, and back British jobs.
New investment will keep the country safe for years to come by accelerating the use of drones and autonomous systems to build a flexible, integrated force with attack drones flying alongside Army helicopters, JAF jets made invisible from enemy detection with new drones, and a hybrid Royal Navy made up of crewed and uncrewed vessels.
Additionally, investment will be allocated towards funding Europe’s biggest drone testing centre, the Uncrewed Systems Centre, opened earlier this month in Swindon, and a new Uncrewed Systems Taskforce to rapidly develop and field new autonomous capabilities with industry.
This will ensure the UK can continuously scale production and get the very latest drones into the hands of our Armed Forces to protect the UK and our Allies.
These investments are accompanied by a series of other crucial allocations made by the Government within the wider Defence Investment Plan to go further and faster on defence spending with a focus on protecting national security, driving growth across the country and delivering opportunity.
Commenting, Stephen Morgan, MP for Portsmouth South, said:
“As the home and heart of the Royal Navy, Portsmouth knows better than anywhere the importance of investing in our nation’s defence. That’s why I warmly welcome today’s Defence Investment Plan and its commitment to the future of the Royal Navy.
“The investment in a Hybrid Navy, alongside the commitment to build at least six new warships delivering the UK’s next generation of maritime air defence capability, is excellent news for Portsmouth. It will help keep our Armed Forces equipped for the challenges of the future while supporting skilled jobs, apprenticeships and our proud naval heritage.
“This Government is matching its commitment to our Armed Forces with long-term investment in the people, technology and capabilities that keep Britain safe. That’s good for Portsmouth, good for our defence industry and good for the security of our country.”
Prime Minister Keir Starmer said:
“This game-changing investment will strengthen our Armed Forces on land, at sea and in the air, ensuring our servicemen and women have the cutting-edge capabilities they need to deter evolving threats and keep the British people safe.
“At the same time, we are backing British innovation, British industry and British jobs and delivering opportunity to every corner of the country.
“The Defence Investment Plan will help drive growth across the UK, giving our industrial base the confidence, certainty and support it needs to develop and scale the technologies that will keep our country safe and secure long into the future.”
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Everyone knows the NHS needs change. People are waiting too long for appointments. Too many patients feel they are passed from pillar to post. The system often feels too big, too slow and too far away from the people it is meant to serve.
I am sitting on the Bill Committee for the new Health Bill, which will examine this legislation line by line. My job is to make sure this new law works for patients, staff and local communities.
The biggest change is the abolition of NHS England, the national body that helps manage the NHS in England. Most people do not know what NHS England is or who runs it, even though it has huge influence over how the NHS works.
The Bill will bring many of its powers back under the control of the Department of Health and Social Care. That means clearer responsibility. The NHS is paid for by the public, and the public deserve to know who is in charge. If things go wrong, those responsible must answer for it.
Local health bodies, called Integrated Care Boards, will have a clearer job. They will have more responsibility for planning local services, including more primary care services such as GP, dental, pharmacy and eye care services.
That means decisions are made closer to patients by people who understand local priorities.
The Bill also changes how patients are listened to.
The NHS has too many management bodies, too many layers and too much confusion. Patients often do not know who to speak to. Families tell their story again and again, reports are written, but many still feel nothing changes.
Under this Bill, the job of listening to patients will move closer to the people who actually make decisions.
For health services, local Integrated Care Boards would take on this role. For social care and public health, local councils would take it on. In plain English, this means fewer middlemen and clearer responsibility.
If patients cannot get a dentist, local NHS leaders should hear that directly, and if people are being bounced around the system, the organisations in charge should not be able to hide behind another body.
As a member of the Bill Committee, I will be scrutinising this closely.
My aim is clear. I want to see less management and more action, and an NHS where patients are not just consulted, but listened to, and their experiences result in real change for the better.
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Dereham can’t take any more housing without additional investment in infrastructure and especially health services for a growing population of young families & elderly.
The closure by NHS England of the Toftwood Surgery left South Dereham residents without a local surgery which is not acceptable - especially given the 50% increase in the Labour Government’s housebuilding targets for Breckland.
That’s why I worked with the local Cllr’s Phillip Duigan and Alison Webb at the time to try and stop the closure and why I’ve made clear that the temporary NHS relocation of Toftwood patients to Orchard and Theatre Royal Surgeries MUST be temporary. And that given the housing growth South Dereham must have one of new Government’s new Community Health Centres with Dentistry, Early years and Elderly care, diagnostics & primary treatment clinics to reduce avoidable travel to the N+N.
That’s why I’ve proposed a Dereham HealthCare Summit this summer and an All Party Dereham Community Healthcare Plan & Campaign so that we can speak with one voice as #TeamDereham to lobby for Government funding.
That’s why I’ve contacted the DHSC Minister to start the campaign.
Delighted that my letter to all Dereham Cllr’s and Health Care bodies has received such a positive response, and look forward to working with all the Cllrs elected across the Town to get the healthcare facilities we need
Correspondence with Ed Garratt OBE, Chief Executive NHS Norfolk and Suffolk ICB
The Member of Parliament for Barking, Nesil Caliskan, has written to Thames Water, alongside local MPs Jas Atwal and Calvin Bailey, demanding urgent action to address growing concerns over continued pollution in the River Roding.
A major concern raised in the letter included reports of sewage discharge and elevated ammonia levels, which threaten local wildlife and community wellbeing.
“Recent evidence indicates that sections of the river recorded ammonia levels of up to 5.19 parts per million” nearly 26 times over “the levels considered necessary to sustain aquatic life.”
There are “reports of stormwater drains registering ammonia concentrations as high as 30.0ppm suggesting substantial and ongoing sewage contamination.”, Nesil Caliskan MP said.
In a meeting of the Environment Committee at the London Assembly last year, Paul Powlesland from the River Roding Trust, described his dismay at the sewage and the lack of coordination to tackle pollutants in London’s rivers. The issues raised, however, continue to persist.
Nesil Caliskan MP said:
“The levels of pollution in the water in Barking & Dagenham are disgusting. Local people in our borough deserve clean waterways not sewage. The River Roding Trust has been doing great work to clean up the Roding River, but ultimately Thames Water should be held to account and end this pollution.”
The MP emphasised the importance of protecting the borough’s waterways and called for greater transparency from Thames Water on pollution incidents, alongside a clear, time-bound plan to reduce them.
The MP has requested a prompt response and has indicated that they will continue to press the issue with regulators and government bodies if sufficient action is not taken.




The Supreme Court ruling of April 2025 caused considerable fear and distress amongst transgender people living in the UK and their loved ones. I am acutely aware of the very real harm this climate is causing to individuals and their families. It is particularly alarming that there have been reports of trans people seeking to leave the UK as they no longer feel safe here.
I share concerns that the latest guidance from the Equalities and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) will only further harm and marginalise trans people and risks excluding them from facilities they have used without incident for a long time. The government’s own equality impact assessment acknowledges the widely negative impact it is likely to have on trans rights: from excluding trans people from facilities to outing them without consent and safeguarding risks for trans women forced to use men’s services.
It specifies that trans women should not be permitted to use women’s facilities in places such as hospitals, shops, and restaurants. It also stipulates that people may be asked to confirm their birth sex where a service provider considers it “necessary and proportionate” to do so. Requiring trans people to confirm their birth sex in this way is an unacceptable infringement of their human rights: in particular, their right to privacy and dignity.
I also worry about the broader consequences of this decision for AFAB women who may not conform to traditional notions of femininity. This guidance could have worrying implications for their dignity, public perception and safety.
Trans people deserve to live with the dignity, freedom and safety to participate fully in public life. This guidance represents a significant step away from this aspiration. I recently raised my concerns in Parliament around the EHRC proposals, the implications for trans people and the wider LGBTQ+ community and the need for trans-inclusive guidance on sex-based spaces.
I have signed Early Day Motion 240, aiming to disapprove the draft Code of Practice for Services, public functions and associations laid before the House of Commons on the 21st May. I have also added my name to Early Day Motion 1251, which recognises that transgender transition liberates trans people to be their true selves, condemns baseless fearmongering in the media, and calls on the Government to fulfil its statutory public sector equality duty to trans people.
I will continue to advocate firmly to ensure that trans people, and all members of the LGBTQ+ community, are able to participate fully in public life as their authentic selves, free from discrimination, and welcomed and respected accordingly.
The post Statement on EHRC Guidance on Sex-Based Spaces appeared first on Bell Ribeiro-Addy.
Healthy Start value was increased by 10% in April. It’s been a long campaign. I am continuing to work with Sustain: The Alliance For Better Food And Farming, The Food Foundation, Feeding Britain and the Department of Health and Social Care as we push for maximum take up.
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What I’ve been up to throughout March March has been a busy month, both in Westminster and in the constituency. In Westminster, a lot of my time has been spent on the Housing, Communities and Local Government Select Committee, where we have been doing pre-legislative scrutiny of commonhold and leasehold legislation. I asked constituents to
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An abridged version of this article ran in The Times on 3rd February 2025
In 2007, in the pages of this newspaper, I argued that Britain should seize the moment and move Heathrow to the Thames Estuary, freeing up the congested west London site for much-needed housing while creating a world-leading transport hub fit for the 21st century. It was an ambitious plan—perhaps too ambitious for a nation that has lost its appetite for grand infrastructure. Seventeen years later, what do we have? The same tired debates, the same dithering, and now, a third runway proposal that represents the absolute minimum of what could be done. It is not a vision; it is a concession to stagnation.
Throughout history, Britain built infrastructure that transformed cities and continents. The Victorians laid thousands of miles of railways across India and Africa. British engineers built the world’s first underground railway in London, the great docks of Hong Kong, and the vast shipping hubs that made global trade possible. Ours was once a nation that saw scale and complexity as challenges to be overcome, not reasons to prevaricate. Today, while China constructs floating airports in Hong Kong and Dalian, we are still arguing over a few extra miles of tarmac at an aging airport hemmed in by suburban sprawl.
The case for expanding Heathrow is undeniable. The airport operates at near capacity, with any disruption causing delays that ripple across the global aviation network. Additional capacity is needed. But the third runway is not a bold leap forward—it is an unimaginative compromise. The design is a relic of a bygone era when Britain was still willing to approve large infrastructure projects but had already begun its slow descent into cautious incrementalism. Surely for a solution we should be looking beyond the immediate horizon, daring to create something transformative.
Compare this to the grand infrastructure ambitions of Asia. Hong Kong’s Chek Lap Kok, which replaced the legendary but perilous Kai Tak airport in the 1990s, was built on reclaimed land. It was a marvel of engineering (mostly British), completed in just six years. Now, China is taking the concept even further: Dalian is constructing a floating airport, pushing the boundaries of what is possible. This is a country that doesn’t simply accept geographic limitations—it overcomes them. Britain, meanwhile, is paralysed by protest groups, endless consultations, and political hand-wringing.
A floating airport in the Thames Estuary—an idea proposed and swiftly dismissed—would have been a statement of ambition. London could have had its own Chek Lap Kok, a world-class hub unencumbered by the constraints of Heathrow’s location. Instead, we are left with a piecemeal expansion of an outdated site, in a project that will take decades and still leave Britain trailing behind.
The environmental argument against expansion is often cited as a reason for delay, but it is a red herring. Modern aviation is rapidly advancing towards lower emissions and greater efficiency. If the concern is air pollution and carbon footprints, the answer is not to stifle airport expansion but to embrace new technology, support cleaner aviation fuels, and invest in modern air traffic management. Britain should be leading these efforts, not using environmental concerns as an excuse for stagnation.
The economic cost of our hesitation is immense. Aviation is a key driver of trade, tourism, and investment. Heathrow’s constraints mean we lose out to European rivals, with airlines shifting long-haul routes to Paris, Amsterdam, and Frankfurt. The third runway, even if built, will do little to reclaim lost ground. By the time it is operational—assuming it even survives the judicial challenges that will inevitably come—other nations will have long since surpassed us.
What Britain needs is a fundamental shift in mindset. We must stop viewing major infrastructure projects as necessary evils to be endured and start treating them as national priorities. This requires reforming our planning laws, streamlining approval processes, and fostering a political culture that celebrates engineering excellence rather than recoiling from it.
The third runway at Heathrow is not the answer—it is a symptom of our decline. Instead of an afterthought tacked onto an aging airport, we should be considering radical alternatives: offshore airports, high-speed rail integration to regional hubs, and a renewed commitment to infrastructure that places Britain at the forefront of global connectivity. We were once a nation that built the world’s most advanced transport networks, that pioneered engineering breakthroughs others only dreamed of. We can be that nation again—but only if we stop settling for mediocrity and start daring to think bigger.
The world is not waiting for Britain to catch up. While we squabble over a single new runway, China is building entire new airports on water. The contrast is stark, and the lesson is clear: boldness breeds success, hesitation ensures decline. If Britain truly wishes to remain a global player, we must abandon the timid incrementalism of the third runway and embrace the kind of audacity that once made us great.
Kit Malthouse 1st February 2025
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