The week in Parliament opened with a focus on the tragic Huntingdon Train Attack, which took place on the east coast main line on Saturday, November 1st. The Home Secretary paid tribute to the victims and acknowledged the exemplary speed of the emergency response; police boarded the London North Eastern Railway train and ended the attack within eight minutes of the first 999 call.
A man named Anthony Williams has been charged with ten counts of attempted murder and related offenses. The Government confirmed the attacker was a British national and was not known to Counter Terrorism Policing or Prevent. The government has committed to examining what more could have been done to stop the horrific event from occurring.
Parliament also debated the crucial Public Office (Accountability) Bill, often referred to as the Hillsborough Law. This landmark legislation seeks to correct injustices stemming from state scandals such as Grenfell, Horizon, infected blood, and Windrush, where the state struggled to recognize victims’ suffering.
It introduces a duty of candour on public officials, ensuring that failure to act with transparency and frankness will carry criminal penalties, including prison. It also establishes a new criminal offense aimed at public servants who wilfully mislead the British people. Importantly, the Bill includes the largest expansion of legal aid in a decade, guaranteeing access to free legal aid for all inquests where the state is an interested party, ensuring bereaved families do not face these inquests alone.
We also voted to protect the biggest upgrade of workers’ rights in a generation via the Employment Rights Bill. This legislation is vital for modernizing protections and aims to end exploitative zero-hours contracts by introducing rights to reasonable shift notice and guaranteeing hours that reflect regular work.
It establishes vital day one rights for paternity, parental, and bereavement leave, and strengthens statutory sick pay. I am delighted, that under this Government, working people in Stretford and Urmston will have more rights and more protections than ever before.
Action was backed to revive high streets, the beating heart of our communities. The Government’s Pride in Place programme, backed by £5 billion, will support 339 locations. Local communities are being empowered with new tools, including the ability to auction off persistently empty premises through High Street Rental Auctions, tackling the issue of 1 in 7 shops lying empty nationwide. I am excited to see how this can build on the excellent work Trafford Council have been doing in our area already to regenerate our high streets.
The Education Secretary also unveiled sweeping reforms following the Curriculum and Assessment Review. To rescue “forgotten” pupils and arm children for the new world of artificial intelligence and hyperconnectivity, a revised national curriculum will be taught from 2028.
I was delighted to see that the plan also introduces a statutory reading test for all Year 8 pupils to ensure children excel in this vital skill, recognizing, as I long have, that reading is the most powerful driver for life chances.
Finally, in my ministerial role, I led the debate for the Government as Parliament refined the Public Authorities (Fraud, Error and Recovery) Bill, which introduces modern powers for the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to tackle fraud and error and grants the Public Sector Fraud Authority new methods to recover losses.
This legislation is expected to recover an estimated £1.5 billion by 2030, delivering on our mission that taxpayers’ money is spent wisely and used responsibly.
I travelled back to the constituency on Thursday last week, and was proud to chair a Community Cohesion meeting in the afternoon with representatives from Trafford Council, local headteachers, faith leaders, representatives of charities and community organisations.
On Friday, I started the day with a visit to the Stretford campus of Trafford College. I answered questions from students on a range of topics, including my journey into politics, education, housing, job security, supporting local independent businesses, transport and congestion, misinformation and disinformation on social media, freedom of speech and youth services. It was fantastic to see how engaged students were with politics.
I then followed that up with a visit to Butty’s Booth in Old Trafford. This fantastic Caribbean takeaway, as well as being a valued local business, is part of the cultural fabric of Old Trafford. They are now being threatened with closure after 5 years trading, and I have launched a petition to put pressure on Your Housing Group to review their decision. You can sign that petition here.
I then met several residents in both Old Trafford and Stretford at some of my regular advice surgeries. Nowadays I can deal with most things either over the phone or by email but it’s also valuable to be able to meet residents in person from time to time – I have always aimed to be as accessible as possible and that’s why I hold at least four surgeries a month covering Old Trafford, Stretford, Urmston and Partington.
On Saturday morning, I was out speaking to residents on the doorsteps in Partington. I always enjoy speaking to residents at their homes – it gives me a real feeling of the issues that constituents are facing in their day to day lives and helps me to focus my work.
United Utilities are conducting some work at the moment which is causing considerable distress and disruption to residents in the Lock Lane area, and I have been speaking to them to try and minimise the impact of this on residents.
On Sunday, I was in Partington again for Remembrance Sunday. It was an honour to attend the Annual Service of Remembrance at Partington Memorial this morning, a beautiful moment where the community came together in their hundreds to remember and pay respects.