Today is a holiday for most of us including the Government. On Wednesday the 1st May Henry Smith, the Crawley MP organised a discussion about “UK trade: Aviation”. He comments

“I thank Mr Speaker for granting me this debate on the importance of aviation to UK trade and to the future of our nation’s economy more generally. Let me start by declaring my interest as the founder and current chair of the all-party parliamentary group for the future of aviation. I believe that aviation is a strategic enabler of the kind of export-led, high-growth economy that Members on both sides of the House want to see.”

On Monday 29th of April there was a vote about the “Post Office (Horizon System) Offences Bill (Instructions)” explained as focused for Scotland and Northern Ireland which included most Sussex MPs. The vote was favoured by the SNP, DUP and the Green Party with Caroline Lucas, a total 42 MPs endorsed it. The Conservatives rejected it including most Sussex MPs, a total of 265 MPs. Maria Caulfield, Nick Gibb and Henry Smith did not vote for it. Peter Kyle and Lloyd Russell-Moyle along with every other Labour MP did not vote either way.

On the same day there was a discussion of the “e-petition 653593” item entitled “Hold a parliamentary vote on assisted dying” organised by the MP for Gower, South Wales, Tonia Antoniazzi. Sussex MPs have not recently taken part in e-petitions but last Monday Caroline Lucas and Peter Bottomley both contributed. Peter ended with the comment that

“I conclude by telling the story of a member of my family who died last week. The hour-by-hour reports from those sitting with her in the care home, which had a hospice end-of-life service, and from those in my family would make a lot of people think twice before charging down a route that could lead to an increase in the number of suicides in this country by three times.”

Later, Caroline spoke and her final comment was

“Palliative care and the hospice movement need more funding, but that does not take away from the importance of giving people choice at the end of life. I am proud that the Green party will commit to supporting a change in the law in our manifesto for the next general election. I hope very much that other parties will do the same.”

Also on Monday 29th April, a discussion about “Children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities” was created by several MPs including Lloyd Russell-Moyle. The Minister who responded to all of the MPs was Gillian Keegan and along Lloyd, there was a question from Caroline Ansell. The first question from Lloyd was “What steps she is taking to improve support for children with special educational needs and disabilities?” The response from Gillian was

“In recent years, we have seen a massive increase in special educational needs in our country, which is why we have expanded funding to a record level—at £10.5 billion, up by 60% in the last five years—and why we are reforming the system to deal with the increase in demand, including the biggest investment in building special educational needs school places in our country’s history.”

Previously on Wednesday 24th April a focus on a single vote for “the draft Economic Growth” a total of 395 MPs endorsed the vote from Labour, Conservative and DUP MPs. The MPs who rejected it, a total of 50, were from the SNP, Liberal Democrat Plaid Cymru also Caroline Lucas and Jeremy Corbyn. Most of the Sussex Conservative MPs endorsed it as did the Labour MP Peter Kyle. The conservative Ministers Maria Caulfield and Gillian Keegan ignored it as did Henry Smith and Lloyd Russell-Moyle. On the same day there were three different votes for the Renters (Reform) Bill which involved a significant number of Labour and Conservatives all voting differently for each part. Most of the Conservative Sussex MPs did support their party. Caroline Lucas and the Labour MPs voted in the opposite direction. However, Henry Smith, Lloyd and Peter Kyle did not vote at all. Two Sussex MPs did speak about the Renters (Reform) Bill, Caroline Lucas made these comments

“This morning, the Secretary of State had the brass neck to suggest that to keep his promise to outlaw no-fault evictions before the next election it is now down to the House of Lords to get on with it. Will the Minister tell us which is more disingenuous: the five years we have been waiting for the Government to keep their promise, or the blatant concessions to the significant numbers of Conservative MPs who are landlords, who have been gifted what amounts to an indefinite delay to the ban on no-fault evictions?”

Tim Loughton spoke twice and towards the end he comments

“I want to secure the Minister’s commitment to work with colleagues particularly in the Department for Education, which has the lead responsibility for children in the care system, to consider how to involve landlords when developing new rent guarantor and deposit schemes for care leavers, and to agree to keep the issue under review with the possibility of using a power the Secretary of State has under the Bill to extend the non-discrimination clauses to groups such as children with care experience.”