I am pleased to be hosting a Macmillan Coffee Morning at Rhydypennau Library on September 30^th.

The coffee morning will be running from 9am to 11am and there will be a selection of drinks and cakes for sale to help raise funds for Macmillan Cancer Care.

This is the perfect chance to catch up over a cuppa and a slice of cake for a great cause. One in three of us will face cancer, and the money we raise at the Coffee Morning will help make sure no one has to face it alone.

Please click here for directions to Rhydypennau Library: 

The World’s Biggest Coffee Morning is Macmillan’s biggest fundraising event for people facing cancer. People from all across the UK host their own Coffee Mornings and donations on the day are made to Macmillan. Last year alone £25 million was raised and this year they are planning on raising even more.

If you would like more information about the coffee morning please email jo.stevens.mp@parliament.uk or call my office on 02921 329736.

I was appalled to learn this week that the Tories intend to push ahead with a vote to repeal the ban on fox hunting.

Hunting with dogs was banned by Labour in 2005 in reaction to the strength of public feeling against the cruelty of wild animals being chased, often to the point of exhaustion, before being purposely set upon by packs of dogs, for ‘sport’.

Fox hunting is extremely cruel. When a fox is caught, it experiences a tortuous death, often enduring multiple bites and tears to its body. If it manages to escape, the stress of the chase can lead to heart failure or irreparable damage. If a fox escapes into a hole, they are forced to face terriers underground and experience injuries to the face, head and neck. Often, the fox cubs are targeted too in an attempt to train hunting dogs. Hunting seasons coincide with when female foxes have cubs in an underground den, meaning if she dies, they will face the same fate.

The Tory plans to amend or repeal the Hunting Act just serve to distract from the real issues affecting the country such as the impact of the referendum decision to leave the EU, on the economy, jobs and security. A Government that had the interests of the majority at heart would focus on these issues, on improving infrastructure and protecting public services.

Despite one failed attempt to repeal the ban under David Cameron, Theresa May and the Tories intend to push for a vote on repealing the ban.

Opinion polling has shown consistently that a majority of the British public support the fox hunting ban. 

You can be assured that I’ll do everything I can to ensure the Tories fail in their efforts to repeal the hunting ban. 

Image with thanks to RSPCA.

On the same day as postal workers took industrial action against the Post Office, I called on the leader of the House to secure a debate into the recent actions and spending of the Post Office.

This year alone post office workers will see 2,000 job losses, a further 100 branches close and the closure of their pension scheme.

Services have been outsourced to retailers such as WH Smith, which has installed a Post Office counter at the back of some of its stores. For the public this means a significantly worse service and the loss of a community asset – and for staff the impact is equally dire.

These retailers don’t want to match the terms and conditions the Post Office has paid its employees – and the income the Post Office counter offers the retailers wouldn’t cover this even if they did. So the Post Office is using tens of millions of pounds to pay off long-serving staff to leave, so they can be replaced with part-time workers on the minimum wage.

The government must recognise that the Post Office is in urgent need of new thinking. What is needed now are a proper series of talks with the government and the Post Office, to formulate a strategy that will safeguard it for the future.

You can read the exchange below: 

Jo Stevens MP:
Today, postal workers across the UK are taking industrial action to protect their jobs, their pensions and our post offices. The Post Office has received £2 billion of public money over the past seven years. May we have a debate about ​why that money has not been spent on new services, securing the future of our post offices and protecting decent jobs?

Mr Lidington, Leader of the House of Commons:

I regret the fact that there is industrial action, because all that will do is inconvenience customers and make it more likely that those customers will look elsewhere for the delivery of parcels and for communicating messages, rather than using Post Office services. The Post Office has indeed been given taxpayers’ money to enable it to make the difficult transformation to a world that relies increasingly on electronic and digital communications and in which there are other competitors for things such as parcel delivery. In general, this has to be a matter of commercial judgement for the Post Office management.

You can watch the exchange below.

https://youtu.be/INboO3jnz20