During this week Parliament will close down for Summer so apart for the Government MPs who will continue to work in the Summer, the others will end this week. However, they are able to send contributions to the Government through question schemes and they could also work with their colleagues to work across Sussex over the next few weeks. As far as this week is concerned there are no events published that have been organised by any of our local MPs but inevitably some of them will contribute into a number of events that have been arranged for this week. One of the items planned for today is a petition debate which is the last petition to be reviewed during Parliament for the next six weeks. This was entitled “Recognise Teaching Assistants as an important asset to schools by raising wage.” The MP who has arranged this discussion is Tonia Antoniazzi who is a Welsh Labour MP. The petitions obtained 88,410 people and interestingly about 80% of the signatures were achieved within the first month after the petition was published in August last year by Lauren Kelly. Our Sussex residents have signed 2,616 signatures so that is quite significant and it would be very encouraging if some of our MPs will take part in this significant discussion. The title that Tonia created for it was “Relating to pay for teaching assistants” and the opening comment in the petition was

Teaching Assistants are an extremely important part of the running of schools in England, but are not currently recognised as this by our government when reflecting on the wage.

Many of us will be very interested to observe what the MPs that take part will contribute in the debate and what will they demand from the Government for the nation. Last week there was a petition which I was pleased received so much attention it was entitled “Make swift bricks compulsory in new housing to help red-listed birds” which was organised by a Conservative MP for Stockton South who opened the discussion with this

This is an incredibly important issue, with a huge number of people having signed the petition. The momentum behind the campaign is the result of an incredible effort by campaigner and author Hannah Bourne-Taylor, whose energy, determination, expertise and creative approach to campaigning have helped raise awareness of the plight of this iconic and much endangered species. In preparation for the debate, I spoke with Hannah and representatives of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, Wild Justice and the Home Builders Federation.

It is very effective for MPs to discuss matters with people who submit petitions and people that endorse petitions. It was very encouraging that Caroline Lucas, the Brighton Pavilion MP took part in that debate and she spoke extensively during it including

my enormous thanks to Hannah Bourne-Taylor for starting this petition. It has been a real pleasure working with her, and her dedication to saving our precious swifts has been an inspiration.

Last Tuesday there was a Bill which involved 18 votes that took place during the discussion for the “Illegal Migration Bill” system. The only Sussex MP who took part in the discussion was Tim Loughton who spoke on several occasions. Most of the votes were similar involving approximately 300 Conservatives who voted Aye in favour of the Bill which will impact our Nation through the Bill. The main MPs who rejected the document were the Labour which included Peter Kyle and Lloyd Russell-Moyle, SNP, Liberal Democrat, Plaid Cymru groups and Caroline Lucas. Another group that rejected the main decision was the DUP MPs who opposed the main Bill. In terms of the Sussex Conservative MPs all of them adopted the Bill itself apart from Henry Smith who did not vote for any elements. Most of them voted in approval of all 17 aspects. However, three of the Sussex MPs did not approve each part. They were Peter Bottomley, Tim Loughton , Caroline Ansell. Peter and Tim voted against 4 of the documents and indeed several of their senior colleagues also rejected them. Sadly, these senior MP’s and a few local Conservatives were not powerful enough to change the elements of the Bill. In addition to those rejections Peter also refused to vote in favour of another 4 cases and Tim Loughton also chose not to favour of two other cases. Caroline Ansell did not vote against any cases but she did not vote for five of the items that her neighbour MPs voted entirely. These radical responses do raise questions about the quality of that Bill.

On Wednesday there was another vote which was very unusual. It was entitled as “Adjournment (Summer, Conference and Christmas)” and it was approved by nearly 400 MPs. That included 270 Conservatives and 120 Labour MPs. As it happens most of the Sussex MPs did adopt it but Peter Kyle, Peter Bottomley, Tim Loughton and Caroline Lucas all failed to approve it. There were 395 people in favour and five people who refused it which were two Conservatives, one Labour and two Liberal Democrats.  It would be very interesting to obtain the nature of this document given that it has been approved by many MPs. Indeed, it would also be important to discover how the result of the multiple decisions involved with the Illegal Migration Bill will impact the Conservative Party in the near future.