On Monday Mary Kelly Foy, the Labour MP for the City of Durham submitted a call to the Government that includes several themes. They include the challenge facing Fire and Rescue over the “increasing extreme weather events” which of course is very significant but clearly not something the Government can control. However she then went on to point out that the “fire and rescue service has suffered central funding cuts of around 30 per cent since 2010, resulting in the loss of more than 11,500 frontline firefighters” which is very disturbing and associated with that theme that “firefighters have lost approximately £4,000 in real terms over the past decade; notes with dismay that some firefighters are resorting to food banks” and so at the end of the document Mary Kelly states “calls for urgent central Government funding for fire and rescue services; and urges employers and the Government to give firefighters a fair pay rise.” Many of us would be very keen for this to take place and so along with Mary Kelly, so far 37 of her colleagues have endorsed that call. While that may not seem significant numbers, given the way that the Early Day Motions operate, it is actually quite significant. The five MPs who endorsed the document the following day to make it formal include an ex Plaid Cymru MP and the rest of them are Labour MPs.

In terms of the others who have signed it, they include three DUPs and an Alba Party MP and an ex SNP MP so there are several MPs from Wales, Scotland and several so far from Northern Ireland. The only Sussex MP so far is Caroline Lucas who is the only Green Party MP. The themes in the document and the list of the MPs are available here and the full text is below. Let us hope that next week that more MPs will endorse this.

That this House recognises and celebrates the significant role firefighters play in society, particularly in the face of increasing extreme weather events and the part they played during the pandemic that included delivering medicines to the vulnerable, supporting the ambulance service and moving the bodies of the deceased; further recognises that the fire and rescue service has suffered central funding cuts of around 30 per cent since 2010, resulting in the loss of more than 11,500 frontline firefighters; is concerned that lives could be put at risk from further cuts; acknowledges that firefighters have lost approximately £4,000 in real terms over the past decade; notes with dismay that some firefighters are resorting to food banks; further notes when inflation is taken into account, the 5 per cent offer from the employers that was rejected by the Fire Brigades Union still represents a further cut in real wages; calls for urgent central Government funding for fire and rescue services; and urges employers and the Government to give firefighters a fair pay rise.