| Life at Westminster has certainly not been dull of late. As the door of No 10 closed on Theresa May, so it opened for Boris Johnson. The Country has a new Leader of the Conservative Party, and a new Prime Minister. As a strong and determined former Mayor of London, Boris has the experience, gravitas and the sense of purpose to unite our country at a time when we face some uncertainty and complex issues. He has set out his clear determination to ensure that we honour the outcome of the 2016 Referendum and leave the European Union by the 31st October deadline, and as our new Prime Minister he has already made an energetic and determined start. I was very pleased to see that in his first week in the job his first visit outside of London was here to the West Midlands to set out his Government’s commitment to recruit 20,000 more police officers and make our streets safer. Residents from across Streetly have often said to me that they want to see more Police Officers in our neighbourhoods, protecting the public and helping us tackle the blight of crime in our communities. It is an issue I have raised with Ministers too. So I particularly welcome the commitment from our new Prime Minister to a recruitment campaign starting this September. Recruitment, training and delivery will be key and so it is good to see that a new national policing board is also being established, under the chairmanship of the Home Secretary, to hold the police to account for meeting this target and driving the national response. Locally I will of course continue to ask that we receive our fair share of additional resources and will be continuing to campaign to keep Aldridge Police Station. With a new Prime Minister there inevitably comes change within Government, and on a personal level I was delighted to accept the invitation from the PM to become the new Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Ministry of Justice. It is a tremendous privilege to be appointed to such a role, and in doing so I become the first Member of Parliament from Aldridge-Brownhills to join the Government as a Minister. Rest assured, that this does not mean that my duties or responsibilities to all of my constituents in Aldridge-Brownhills are diminished in any way. I am still your Member of Parliament and I will continue to represent your views at Westminster. The House is now in Recess for summer, giving me greater opportunity to hold some of my drop-in MP community surgeries, and continue with local constituency matters. As always I look forward to meeting you when I am out and about across Streetly and my wider constituency. This article was first published in the Royal Sutton Observer on 2nd August 2019 |