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I am enthusiastic about beer and believe that pubs should be cherished institutions and vital community hubs that must be protected. I believe strongly in supporting the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) and local pub owners. This includes backing a reduction in beer duty and I have raised this with...

The recently announced changes to TV licensing fees is a deeply disappointing development. Free TV licences for up to 3.7 million pensioners are being scrapped, with over 75s forced to start paying £154.50 per year to watch live television and BBC iPlayer as of June 2020.   As far as I am...

In his first Commons statement as prime minister, Boris Johnson gave ‘unequivocally our guarantee to the 3.2 million EU nationals now living and working among us... I can assure them that, under this Government, they will have the absolute certainty for the right to live and...

A new campaign called the Hands Off Moulsecoomb Primary School campaign, has recently come to my attention and I feel it is we must all get behind. You may have already heard that the Government is trying to force Moulsecoomb Primary School to become an academy school and join a private...

The Queen will be asked by the government to suspend Parliament days after MPs return from recess - just weeks before the Brexit deadline. Make no mistake about it: what we’ve witnessed today is nothing short of the start of an anti-democratic coup worthy of a tin-pot...

500 extra border guards, £434m to ensure medicine supplies, £108m to keep businesses afloat and £138m for an ad campaign. These are just a few headline figures from Boris Johnson’s £2.1bn no deal planning package revealed earlier this week. These announcements are nothing but a slap in...

Viscerally, something had been taken from me, and not for others to gain from, but to be destroyed and torn up. My rights, my citizenship, my culture—all had been ripped away from me and many of my constituents. On my way home on that miserable morning, I of course went to my local shop. I...

Such events are also deeply personal to me, because next year I will be marking an anniversary of my own —10 years since I became HIV-positive. It has been a long journey from the fear of acceptance to today and, hopefully, advocacy, knowing that my treatment keeps me healthy and protects any...

Despite the danger of sounding like a broken record, it will be no surprise to colleagues that I intend to speak about what has happened to youth services since then, and the problems that that has led to in our communities. Despite the Government’s plan, a 2016 study—these are the latest...

I am not surprised by the statistics, since asylum seekers are not allowed to work and are forced to rely on state support of just £36.95 a week. I would be unable to live on that and I suspect that many people present would be unable to live a decent life on that, either. When claiming asylum,...

As a campaigner for women’s suffrage, Margaret was part of a broader labour movement with other working-class suffragettes, fighting for all women to have equal rights with men. This year, of course, marks 90 years of the equal franchise, but it is also the centenary of the unequal franchise for...

It enhances the readiness for learning in the classroom and learning in life, but it does not only help young people in the classroom; it also helps them to develop the skills and attitudes that are needed for the employment about which the Prime Minister was so boastful today, and, of course, for...

I have some news for the Conservative Members, however, because we had a new manifesto in 2017, which was even more popular than our 2015 manifesto: it led to their losing seats and to our gaining them. The 2017 manifesto went even further: “Labour will make new three-year tenancies the norm,...

I can marry whomever I want to, if anyone would want to marry me, of course—applications on a postcard. I can date a person in the style that I want, including online, and of course, consensually I can sleep with who I want without fear of persecution. However, the same cannot be said in many...

We know that this has been happening thanks to the investigative work of Amnesty International and other non-governmental organisations. In 2014, Ukrainian-based S-Profit Ltd, which was registered here in the UK, was named by the South Sudanese Government as brokering a £44 million small arms...

I think it’s important that I put on the record the contribution the farming industry makes to Sussex and indeed the whole country. Farming contributes over £140 million to Sussex’s economy and employs 8500 people permanently as well as offering employment to thousands of seasonal...

On the diplomatic strategy, resolution 377A of the General Assembly—the “Uniting for Peace” resolution—would allow this Government to convene an emergency session of the GA to seek a majority there. If that majority was found, it would provide a level of backing under international law that...

They have trialled a number of alternative models of education: one whereby they have used Bridge International Academies, which we touch on in the report; one whereby they use local NGOs as providers; and one whereby they use completely non-profit international NGOs. When we spoke to some of the...

It has often been misinterpreted—I hope not deliberately, but one can never judge that totally—but it has been about ​proportionality and ensuring that we do not get ahead of ourselves and refrain from unnecessarily inflaming language such as, “Shut up and go away.” It is also worth...

I will briefly touch on a number of issues, which supplement those that have already been raised, and which are particularly about the co-ordination of non-governmental organisations. At the moment, Britain and London are one of the leading hubs for NGOs and aid organisations around the world....