Just over a week ago I wrote about this Fire and Rescue document that is entitled “Funding for fire and rescue services” which the City of Durham MP wrote on Monday 21st November. That MP is Mary Kelly Foy. The text of the document is below and it was initially supplied by 9 MPs within 24 hours. Subsequently it has been endorsed by another 46 MPs which may not be a huge number of MPs but it is nevertheless very significant. Since the beginning of September this year there has been a total of 331 Early Day Motions and one of them has achieved 80 signatures along with the author. This one was the next largest EDM that has received 56 signatures along with the author. Let us hope that over the next week this document will move closer to the largest document because it is a very significant document. So far there are a total of seven Scotland MPs (five SNPs), six Northern Ireland MPs (four DUPs) and five Welsh MPs. The other 39 MPs are from England. We could also do with more MPs from the South East. The MPs are mostly Labour MPs in the England area and so far there are no Conservative MPs that have endorsed 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.