Dan’s shock is visible when he talks about the Prime Minister’s response to an MP’s question about the Green Homes Grant. The scheme isn’t being cut, Boris Johnson said, but not enough people were taking it up. 

Coronavirus 

It’s hard to believe it’s a year since the first cluster of coronavirus cases was discovered in Brighton and Hove. A GP surgery and pharmacy were closed for deep cleaning, and many people were worried or confused about what they should be doing and what measures like self-isolation actually meant. There was a lack of clear, timely information and unfortunately the situation didn’t improve for many weeks.   

Last night I opened a parliamentary debate on the Climate & Ecological Emergency Bill, calling on the Goverment to respond much faster to the climate crisis.

The current 2008 Climate Act is hopelessly out of date and needs to be strengthened and the year when the UK will host a critical UN climate summit is the year to do it.

Three and a half years on from the Grenfell tragedy there are still millions of people living in unsafe homes with flammable cladding. This is a Government failing of monumental proportions. 

Coronavirus 

As a member of the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for the Night Time Economy, I’m working with other MPs and peers to address some of the challenges facing the nightlife sector because of Covid-related restrictions.

The group has launched an urgent inquiry into the impact of Covid-19 on UK nightlife and is investigating how the sector can reopen and recover from the pandemic and we want to hear people’s views on the nightlife sector, and what it means to them.

As surveys show increased levels of spending using Buy Now Pay Later products including Klarna and Clearpay during lockdown, I’ve joined more than 70 MPs from across parliament and Martin Lewis of Money Saving Expert to call on the Government to protect consumers and regulate the Buy Now Pay Later industry.

Brexit

This is the first newsletter I have written with the UK outside the European Union.  December 31^st was a very sad day for many of us when the transition period ended, the UK officially became a “third country” and we lost the freedom to live, work, study and settle down in Europe.  I felt a huge sense of regret and sadness, but I know it isn’t the end. We will pick up the struggle for a future based on closer ties with countries which share our values. We are still European.

The Brexit debate in Parliament

This hardest of Brexit deals, for which there is no mandate, is one that cuts British jobs, sidelines our service sector, undermines hard won protections for the environment, workers’ rights, and consumers, and turns Kent into a diesel-stained monument to hubris and political myopia. 

It’s a deal that condemns us to living in a poorer, more unequal, more isolated Britain. 

And it leaves us less equipped to rise to the greatest challenges we face, the climate and nature emergencies.

CHRISTMAS NEWSLETTER 2020 

At the start of my Christmas newsletter last year, I said it had been a tumultuous year in politics. It’s hard to believe that 2020 has been even more extraordinary in so many ways.  It is a year I think none of us will ever forget.