This past weekend we have again seen major delays to passenger and freight traffic seeking to make their journeys to France across the Dover straits. This was caused by the combination of very high levels of holiday traffic, due to the end of the school year, and also the understaffing by the French authorities of […]
It is often said that a week is a long time in politics and the recent turn of events has certainly demonstrated how quickly things can change. The resignation of many government Ministers required a reorganisation of the administration. In that regard, last Friday I was honoured to be asked by the Prime Minister to […]
Last week’s RMT rail strike caused huge disruption across the country, including in Kent, where most local services were cancelled, and many stations closed. This has stopped some people, including front line public sector workers, from being able to get to work, and also made the journeys harder for some students sitting exams; a concern […]
Last week I was glad to welcome the Secretary of State for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy, Kwasi Kwarteng MP, to Folkestone. We met with Sir Roger De Haan and Alastair Upton, the Chief Executive of Creative Folkestone, at The Quarterhouse theatre and visited different locations in the town’s Creative Quarter, including the new F51 […]
The UK has a proud history of welcoming those in desperate need of help. We are a fundamentally generous nation recognised as a beacon of humanity, openness, and opportunity around the world. You only need to look at the enthusiastic response to the Homes for Ukraine Scheme to see that we are a nation serious […]
Friday 8 April 2022 Over the last week we have seen some of the most challenging road conditions in Kent in the past seven years. The M20 has been closed to coastbound traffic between junctions 8 and 11, and that section of the motorway is being used to hold nearly 2,000 queuing lorries. These queues […]
Friday 1 April 2022 We are all appalled at the behaviour of the management of P&O Ferries in dismissing their entire workforce and replacing them with agency workers being paid well below the minimum wage. Its chief executive Peter Hebblethwaite has even admitted in front of a parliamentary committee that P&O Ferries was in breach […]
Thursday 24 March 2022 This week in the House of Commons, the Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak set out in the Spring Statement his plan to support the recovery of the economy, following the COVID pandemic. Whilst the economy is expected to grow 3.8% this year, and be bigger than it was before the […]
Monday 21 March 2022 On 11 March I visited Napier Barracks in Folkestone, along with the Leader of Folkestone and Hythe District Council, Cllr David Monk. We were given a tour of improvements made to the facilities for the three hundred asylum claimants who are resident there. The Barracks is being used as a temporary […]
Wednesday 9 March 2022 On Tuesday 7 March I attended the address given by the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky to the House of Commons. It is without precedent for a non-member of parliament to speak in the chamber of the House, but it brought to us directly his message of determination to resist the […]