Today is Spring Bank Holiday which many of us enjoy including Parliament which will go to have a week’s break. However, given that a few days ago last week that the Prime Minister announced the General Election for Thursday 4th July it is possible that Parliament may be closed down during most of June.

Prior to the decision from the Government last week there have been a number of comments about the General Election in the last few months. On the 16th May there was a discussion about the possible timing of a General Election in a session named “Women’s State Pension Age” with several contributions. John Martin McDonnell, the Labour MP stated

“We do not know the timing of the general election—possibly November, but maybe later—but it is likely that we will have only about 10 sitting weeks between now and a general election.”

The most recent election reference from a Sussex MP was Caroline Lucas who asked about the General Election back on 6th March with

“To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, pursuant to the Answer of 27 February 2024 to Question 14837 on Absent Voting, whether postal ballot sweeps will be undertaken at local delivery offices on the evening of (a) 2 May 2024 and (b) General Election polling day.”

There are at least three Sussex MPs who have already planned to leave Parliament in July. Caroline from Brighton Pavilion and two Conservatives who made statements a while ago, Henry Smith from Crawley and Tim Loughton from East Worthing and Shoreham. However, there could be some other Sussex MPs that may be voted out of their constituencies on the 4^th July. Many of us would like the opportunity for Liberal Democrat MPs, Labour MPs and new Green MPs to emerge across Sussex along with Conservative MPs.

In the meantime, my comments today are based on what has happened in Parliament in the last two weeks. Last Tuesday there were a couple of voting items. The first was the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Bill and the members were focusing on “Consideration of Lords Message: manuscript amendment”. The Conservatives and DUP rejected it and their votes closed down the debate. Most of the Sussex Conservatives did reject it but Nusrat Ghani, Tim Loughton and Jeremy Quin didn’t vote. The Labour, SNP and Liberal Democrats endorsed it and Lloyd Russell-Moyle and Caroline Lucas supported it but Peter Kyle did not vote it.

The second item on Tuesday was about the High-Speed Rail (Crewe – Manchester) Bill. There was a significant number of Labour, Conservative and DUP’s that endorsed it with 318 votes and only 7 rejections. They were five Conservatives and 2 Liberal Democrat. Most of the Sussex Conservatives did vote for it and Lloyd Russell-Moyle endorsed it. However, there were no votes from Nusrat Ghani, Tim Loughton and Jeremy Quin all Conservatives and no votes from Caroline Lucas and Peter Kyle.

Last Wednesday there were two other voting items. The first was about “Immigration and asylum: Ten Minute Rule Motion” which obtained votes from 74 Conservatives including Caroline Ansell, Sally-Ann Hart and Henry Smith. Forty-nine MPs rejected it from the SNP, Liberal Democrats and a few others. The only Sussex MP to vote against the motion was Caroline Lucas.

The second item was “Holocaust Memorial Bill Committee: New Clause 1”. There were only 11 people who endorsed it and they were all Conservatives including Peter Bottomley and Henry Smith. 182 MPs rejected the Bill who were nearly all Conservatives. There were 6 Sussex MPs that contributed to the rejections of the Peter and Henry.

On the 15th May there was a vote connected to the Criminal Justice Bill with three clauses that were voted on that day. The Conservative MPs voted against the three clauses and it was significant that apart from Maria Caulfield that all of the Sussex Conservatives did vote for most of the clauses. There was support from the Liberal Democrats, Plaid Cymru, a DUP MP and also Caroline Lucas. However, two of the clauses named 44 entitled Sexual exploitation of an adult and 59 referred as Ban on “ninja swords” were supported by Labour MPs. Lloyd Russell-Moyle and Peter Kyle voted for those two items, but they did not support the clause 91 Offence of failing to meet pollution performance commitment levels.  It was fascinating that Peter Bottomley voted against the 44 and 59 clauses but he did not vote against clause 91.

On the same day there was a discussion for a theme called Biodiversity Loss and it was a discussion that was organised by Caroline Lucas. She was the only Sussex person who contributed but many other MPs did take part. She began with the statement

“I beg to move, That this House has considered biodiversity loss. It is a real pleasure to serve with you in the Chair, Ms Rees, and to open today’s debate on biodiversity loss. It is now less than six months until COP16 takes place in Colombia—the first summit since the Kunming-Montreal global biodiversity framework was agreed in 2022, when countries committed to “halt and reverse biodiversity loss by 2030.” The meeting will be a crucial opportunity for global leaders to demonstrate how they are delivering on the commitment to restore our depleted natural world, and it is a moment for our own Government to step up as well”.