Category: Politics

Every life lost is tragic — but every life lost through violent crime is, in-part, a failure on the state.

As a Member of Parliament for the West Midlands, I’m regrettably no stranger to the devastating impact of knife crime. In 2023, the region recorded the highest rate of knife crime offences in England and Wales for the whole of 2023.

When I was recently elected, there was the tragic case of Jack Donoghue who was punched, kicked and stabbed in the chest in a four-on-one attack near Popworld in Solihull in 2020. In October last year, 17 year old Reuben Higgins was stabbed on Station Road in Marston Green near Solihull. And just last week, the friends and family of 12 year old schoolboy Leo Ross out their son to rest after he was stabbed in the stomach.

These devastating incidents, which are sadly far from isolated, means tackling knife crime must be one of parliament’s top priorities.

I am very clear that stop and search should play an important part in this. There is strong consensus amongst police chiefs and academics that it saves lives. That’s why I was pleased to lead a Westminster Hall debate on stop and search.

Stop and search allows the police to pre-empt dangerous situations and offers an effective and credible deterrent to violent criminals who might think about carrying a dangerous weapon. Critically, stop and search not only protects the public but might stop a potential perpetrator from crossing the Rubicon and taking part in illegal activity.

The case for stop and search is backed up by research from the Oxford Journal of Policing which found that stop and search can cut the number of attempted murders by 50 per cent or more. In my view, there is clearly a correlation between stop and search to drop by 44% over two years and the fact that, since he took office, knife crime offences in London has increased by 38%.

I also believe the work of Professor Lawrence Sherman, former Chief Scientific Officer for the Metropolitan Police, provides some useful insight into the effectiveness of stop and search. Sherman suggests we should focus on areas that are deemed to be ‘high-risk’ and that the effective use of stop and search requires it to be legitimate and supported by local people. To that end, he suggests that targeted stop and search in high-risk areas is necessary and has the scope to be effective. Crucially, Sherman argues that whilst using data and bias might be controversial, the need to protect people comes first.

Not only is stop and search an effective tool for the police, it is also overwhelmingly backed by the public. In a November 2022 survey, Crest Advisory found that stop and search has a high level of support all ethnic groups. It found that a total of 86 per cent of adult respondents supported the police’s right to stop and search someone if they are suspected of having a weapon on them. Of these, 77 percent of Black adults supported the police having the right to stop and search to find weapons and 71 percent to find Class A drugs.

Any debate about tackling the knife-crime epidemic must also focus on prevention. Stop and search can’t be the only tool the police and civil authorities have to tackle the scourge of violent crime. The slippery slope that drags too many people, particularly young boys, into violent crime must be broken.

I have taken interest in the Centre for Social Justices’ illuminating new report, Lost Boys, published last week. It highlights the issues that drive young boys, who overwhelmingly make up the numbers of victims of knife crime, into criminal gangs. These are certainly questions that need addressing if we are to wean people away from violent crime and the gangs that incite this sickening violence.

But this should not prevent us from having a serious and open debate about the role of stop and search. There’s clearly consensus that it can help to drive down crime and for that reason the police should have no shame in using it to keep the public safe.

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Source: Politics

“It’s got the stage that we dread using the service” — that’s what one of my constituents told me about the performance of Thameslink’s services to and from Mid Bedfordshire. It’s simply not good enough and that’s why I’ve been working so hard down in parliament to hold Thameslink and ministers to account.

With the government planning to nationalise our railways, we need to ensure they are aware of the many issues commuters are facing on a regular basis so I was pleased to be able to secure a debate in parliament to highlight these problems. While the delays and cancellations are something we need to fix now, we also need to make sure we are focused on the challenges of the future with more houses being built and potential projects like the Universal Studios project adding to demand.

A high-performing Thameslink service is vital to support economic growth in the Oxford to Cambridge growth corridor, which is one of this government’s central missions. Thameslink services already link London to Cambridge, but they will one day also link London with East West Rail at Cambridge, Tempsford and Bedford. If we want to maximise the return on investment of that infrastructure project, its connections into the wider train network need to be fast and reliable.

We also have the prospect of an expanding Luton Airport to plan for, with many more passengers passing through our area. And with East West Rail on the horizon, we need a Thameslink service that is reliable enough for people to be able to count on making their connection train at Bedford.

These are the challenges, and of course the opportunities, the government has to focus on if it plans to nationalise our railway system. But there is much to do to improve the service now.

About 1.5 million passengers use Harlington and Flitwick stations in my constituency each year to get to work, meet friends and go shopping. And if they happen to use the 7.43 am service from Flitwick, their train would have been cancelled 28% of the time in the last 100 days and arrived late 42% of the time. That is simply not good enough.

Statistics tell one story, but it’s listening to local people where you truly feel the impact of this failure. To make sure the point hit home to the minister I asked local people to share their stories with me in a survey on my website. And the hundreds of responses I received in just a few days showed me just how strong people feel about the performance of rail services in Bedfordshire. 80% of those who responded told me that they had been impacted by a cancellation in the past month, and 88% told me that they had experienced a delay of more than 10 minutes. We should be encouraging people to use our railways, not pushing them onto our congested roads or worse, staying at home.

As a regular commuter from the constituency to Westminster myself, I know that these stories are all too common. And in fact just the day before my debate I had to deal with two cancellations and a severe delay on my way in, and further disruption including having to leave at Finsbury Park on the way home.

Taking all of this into account, I can only imagine the frustration my constituents felt when mere days after my debate we learned that rail fares are set to be hiked again this year. If fares are going to increase, commuters and all railway users deserve a reliable and efficient service. Sadly, that is not the standard they are receiving in Mid Bedfordshire, and I’m sure the same can be said across much of the country.

Rail services are not good enough at the moment and there are many challenges to come, but if we get this right there are great opportunities to deliver a better experience for commuters and to deliver economic growth — a key aim of this government.

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Source: Politics

We are now eight months into this UK Labour government in Westminster. So let’s ask ourselves, what has changed?

Keir Starmer and his government have certainly made headlines, but all too often for their screeching policy u-turns and jaw-dropping before-and-after general election hypocrisy. From slashing the winter fuel payment for millions of pensioners and maintaining the Tories’ cruel two-child cap to denying state pension injustice compensation to 1950s-born women, the poor get poorer while the bankers get to keep their uncapped bonuses.

We are yet to see their big, dazzling promises for ‘change’ delivered. For most people, it just feels rather like more of the same. As the cost of living continues to bite — with energy and water bills, food prices, and council tax rising in most areas — hardworking people are still feeling the squeeze.

Labour’s decisions have exacerbated these effects on families already struggling to make ends meet, although it’s true to observe that these cost-of-living challenges are not unique to the UK. Rising costs and social hardship — all compounded by the current geopolitical instability — are forcing countries across Europe to change track in order to serve the best interests of their people.

Starmer recently announced his intention to ramp up defence spending “in light of the grave threats that we face”. With the public purse already under severe strain, however, this proposed increase comes at the expense of welfare and international aid, both of which face huge cuts by the UK government. While the UK government chooses to double down on economic austerity, other European countries have opted for more socially-responsible solutions: committing to protecting peace in Europe while simultaneously prioritising the wellbeing of their people.

Germany, for example, has taken a markedly different route, with Friedrich Merz’s new government changing its fiscal rules and creating a 500-billion-euro fund to boost investment in core infrastructure – including transport and education — to stimulate economic growth. Following 14 years of Tory austerity, it’s difficult to ignore the irony of a centre-right party in Germany investing in the country’s future, while the UK’s supposedly centre-left Labour is busy making cuts in the very areas which will kickstart the economy.

That is why I highlighted Germany’s plans in last week’s PMQs, and asked whether the UK government would consider a similar approach by focusing on strategic investment rather than imposing further hardship on the very poorest people through cuts to welfare and international aid.

Sad to say, the PM’s response was disappointing in the extreme. Despite recent commendable diplomatic efforts on the international stage, the prime minister’s domestic strategy remains dishearteningly divisive. Cooperation across the House is essential to tackle the major economic and social challenges facing the UK. Yet, instead of fostering a collaborative environment, the PM chose to play political games, using PMQs as an opportunity to attack Plaid Cymru rather than engage with the legitimate concerns raised regarding the gravity of the current domestic and international situation.

The political landscape in Wales is changing fast. Labour may have won the last general election with a ‘landslide’ victory but their support in Wales plummeted. Despite the media’s obsession with Reform, Plaid Cymru is the real opposition to Labour in Wales with recent polls showing that we hold the lead ahead of the 2026 Senedd elections. Labour is struggling to fight the changing tide, and Keir Starmer’s petty diversion tactic speaks volumes.

Labour has been the biggest party in Wales for over a century, but in just over a year’s time, they know that they are at risk of making history for failing to maintain that record. The people of Wales are frustrated and disillusioned and with good reason. After 25 years in power, Labour has failed the people of Wales. We are a country grappling with an overstretched NHS, struggling schools, rising child poverty, and stagnant living standards. While Reform UK may be capitalising on this frustration, they offer no real solutions. Politicians of protest feed off despair and hopelessness while Labour politicians’ promises of change ring hollow when they’ve squandered decades in self-satisfied inactivity. Plaid Cymru is providing radical solutions grounded in a true knowledge of our communities. We are the only credible alternative — offering a fresh vision rooted in hope, fairness, and ambition, and Labour knows it.

While Labour continues to put party before country, Plaid Cymru has proven time and again that we are the only party that stands up for Wales, both in the Senedd and in Westminster. Plaid Cymru presented an amendment to the Crown Estate Bill calling on the UK Treasury to devolve responsibility of the Crown Estate in Wales to the Welsh government to allow any profits generated to stay in our communities for the benefit of our people. This is official Welsh Labour policy but not a single Labour MP voted in favour of the amendment. The so called ‘partnership in power’ is just a hollow slogan. More and more people in Wales see right through it.

Keir Starmer may be attacking Plaid Cymru, but his party’s betrayal of the people of Wales is entirely of their own doing. The people of Wales deserve better and know that Labour will not offer any real answers to their problems with further cuts and U-turns. They will not even equip Wales with the powers to enable us to grow our own economy out of begging bowl status. More and more people are waking up to the realisation that Plaid Cymru is the only party that will prioritise the people of Wales and deliver for them.

Labour is clearly struggling to counter the political shift in Wales, but I should like to remind the PM that it would be worthwhile to focus on providing real solutions to the UK’s problems rather than scrambling to get pre-scripted petty political digs.

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Source: Politics