The vote last night took place to determine for the fourth time if the leaseholders in blocks of flats could be prevented from being responsible for the replacement of the fire safety bills following Grenfell and the need for replacing the protection in their flats. I spotted this from a friend of mine called Jon Hall who used to work for East Sussex Fire and Rescue and we both sat on a range of committees together in the area. His tweet this morning was “Just the latest National shame I’m afraid – Commons voted 322 to 256 to reject a House of Lords amendment aimed at protecting leaseholders from costs to make their homes safe in the wake of the #Grenfell Tower fire.” and along with those words he was pointing us towards the article in the Guardian which is here. I am very upset that the Government refused to give way to the leaseholders needs and that so many MPs voted alongside the Government. One of the people who I spotted on the list who voted to support the leaseholders was Esther McVey who is not exactly an anti Government MP.

Here in Sussex where I live and where Jon used to live and work there are 16 MPs of whom 13 are Conservatives and then there are two Labour MPs, Peter Kyle and Lloyd Russell-Moyle and one Green MP who is also my own MP, Caroline Lucas. All three of these are MPs in Brighton and Hove and they understandably opposed the Government. I am also proud that there were some Conservatives who voted to protect the leaseholders. These people are Caroline Ansell (Eastbourne) and Peter Bottomley who as well as being the West Worthing MP is also the Father of the House of Commons. Peter has raised this theme on many occasions within Parliament and is a very strong supporter for this matter. Sadly the rest of the 11 Sussex MPs did not vote to support leaseholders and indeed voted to prevent them being supported. This is deeply concerning and while some of the MPs are members of the Government and therefore could lose their jobs if they vote against the Government, several are not as listed below.

So the none Government MPs who voted to oppose Leaseholders from Sussex are Nusrat Ghani, Andrew Griffith, Sally-Ann Hart, Tim Loughton, Huw Merriman and Henry Smith. All of the other people are members of the Government in a Ministerial position or in the case of Maria Caulfield she is a Government Whip.

It is deeply disturbing that apart from West Worthing, Eastbourne and Brighton and Hove that all other parts of Sussex have been voted to prevent supporting leaseholders. Perhaps even more disturbing is the fact that the overall vote also failed to support leaseholders.