(This article was published in the Brighton Argus today – 27th November 2023) The plans for Parliament this week based on the “TheyWorkForYou” website which last week did not seem very significant but this week include one session this afternoon reflects views from many people. Organised by Nicholas Fletcher, the Conservative MP for Don Valley, South Yorkshire in Westminster Hall are the “e-petitions 624876 and 643611 relating to legislation in respect of dangerous dogs”. These two e-petitions have more than 712,000 public signatures and indeed the second one is still active so numbers may well rise in the next three months. Last week a discussion organised by Marsha de Cordova, a Labour MP for London involving three e-petitions for “Relating to pay and financial support for healthcare students”. The signatures were few but the important was significant and not many MPs took part. There were two Labour’s and one Minister, all of which are based in North England. Let us hope that the event today will involve some MPs from the South including Sussex representatives.

Last week several actions on Monday related to the “Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Bill” and along with several discussions there were four votes on the clauses. As it happened the Government rejected all of the four clauses and in Sussex there were several Conservatives that agreed with the Government and there were votes from two Labour MPs and the Green MP in support of the clauses. However five Conservatives did not vote, they were Nusrat Ghani, Gillian Keegan and Huw Merriman who are all Ministers and also Peter Bottomley and Tim Loughton from Worthing. I am intrigued to find out why these ministers and MPs from Sussex have not voted in favour of the Government.

Along with those events last week and the plan for this week it is noteworthy that some groups of MPs have raised Early Day Motions following the Kings Speech in Parliament three weeks ago. One EDM was published by Jon Trickett, the Labour MP for Hemsworth in West Yorkshire entitled “Food banks”. Although he submitted it on the 9^th November, it was not released until the 14^th November the same day of the Kings 75^th Birthday celebration in which the King raised the issue of Food banks publicly. Some of us are aware that the Government needs to support charities that are distributing food to provide for those effected by food poverty and so this is a compelling item. The content for this EDM which is number 54 is as follows:

That this House notes with extreme concern the new figures from The Trussell Trust which showed that 1.5 million food parcels were provided to people between April and September 2023 by food banks in the charity’s UK-wide network, which is a 16% increase on the same period in 2022; highlights that 320,000 people have needed to use a food bank for the first time in the past six months; notes that a record 540,000 food parcels were provided for more than 265,000 children living in families who could not afford the essentials, which is an 11% increase compared to the same period last year; highlights the grave concerns expressed by the UN Poverty envoy Olivier De Schutter on poverty levels in the UK; and urges the Government to act now to tackle poverty by ensuring decent pay, investment and high quality public services.

After the EDM was published the first five MPs who signed it to support the motion as sponsors were three that did so two weeks ago. Two were Labour MPs and the third was Caroline Lucas the Green MP for Brighton Pavilion. Last week two more Labour colleagues endorsed the sponsor and so far, three more added their signatures, one SNP and two Labour MPs. There have been several EDMs since 2008 until January 2023 that have focused on Trussell and FareShare aims. The largest ones are listed here.

In June 2013, “FARESHARE” was published by Grahame Morris, a Labour MP in Yorkshire with forty-six MP’s including Peter Bottomley the Conservative MP for Worthing West. At the same time “FOOD BANKS AND FOOD POVERTY’’ related to Trussell from Roger Godsiff the Labour MP for Birmingham with fifty-five MP’s including Caroline Lucas. In September 2020 “Centrica” came from John Cryer a Labour MP from London with sixty-seven people including Caroline and Lloyd Russell-Moyle the Labour MP for Brighton Kemptown. In December 2020 and December 2021 Ian Byrne a Labour MP from Liverpool created two EDMs called “Food insecurity”. The first involved fifty-eight MP’s including Caroline and Lloyd and the second had forty-eight MP’s included Caroline. In February 2021 “Support to tackle food waste” focusing on FareShare was set by Neil Parish a Conservative MP in Devon with sixty-three MP’s including Peter and Lloyd. FareShare, on their facebook page explain more about the new food project.

The Coronation Food Project will build on existing networks operated by the charity FareShare across the UK and The Felix Project across London, both tackling food waste and redirecting surplus food to a range of community organisations, from after-school clubs and homeless shelters to nursing homes and domestic violence refugees.

It would be very encouraging if Peter and Lloyd will endorse “Food banks” as they have done before. There are also six other Sussex MPs that are not members of the Government, it would be encouraging if they would consider responding the Coronation Food Project described on the day of the Kings Birthday request.