Joe Morris, Hexham’s MP, said: “Ordinarily, I try to use this column to talk about local work I’m doing. To leave the noise of Westminster politics behind, and focus on visits to charities, businesses and schools across our area, or to talk about how I’ve raised certain issues of importance to local people in the House of Commons.
“And I’d like to be able to do that this week – I raised issues with Bellingham Middle School in Parliament, called for the Government to move at pace to fulfil our manifesto commitment to implement a full ban on trail hunting, and was able to celebrate the incredible work done by local Violence Against Women & Girls campaigners.
“On Friday (January 10), I visited St Joseph’s Catholic Middle School, met with a digital inclusion activist and discussed gaps in our constituency’s childcare provisions with a local councillor and school teacher. Giving a voice to our area on the national stage is my priority as your local Member of Parliament and I endeavour to reflect this in my day-to-day work.”
READ MORE:
“And while I would like to spend this week’s column talking more about this, there are other topics I feel I must address.
“I know that in politics, we don’t always agree. That you can be a perfectly fair-minded and decent person, and disagree almost entirely with me on the vast majority of issues, yet still want the same thing as me – a fairer society and better outcomes for our area.
“Unfortunately, Wednesday’s vote (January 8) on the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill saw one of the major parties indulge in the kind of gutter politics I genuinely thought was beneath them.
“The bill we debated on Wednesday was necessary legislation that will take genuine steps forward to increase protection for our most vulnerable children. It will implement multi-agency child protection teams, strengthen accountability for children’s homes and introduce compulsory registers for children not in school amongst other measures to make our schools better and make schooling more affordable for parents by cracking down on unnecessary profiteering from branded school uniforms.
“This bill is a landmark piece of legislation that will improve protections for the most vulnerable children, who are at risk of abuse. Ending that abuse is, it should go without saying, the goal of everyone in public service.
“Instead of putting down a constructive amendment, the Conservative Party put down a ‘wrecking amendment’, that would have killed the bill – stopping all the necessary protections being put in, stopping the good things that the bill does for our schools. All to get a cheap headline and weaponise child sexual exploitation for political gain.
“I think it demeans the Conservative Party, it demeans our parliament and it demeans this country to indulge in that kind of toxic political gamesmanship over the safety of children.
“Not only are the Conservative party jeopardising the current Government from implementing a landmark bill to protect the young people of this country, but they have successively failed, in the past, to make the changes that would have vastly improved the protection of children. The previous government failed to implement any recommendations from the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) final report which was published in October 2022.
“This Government is taking immediate action on three key recommendations from the IICSA report. Legislating to make it mandatory to report abuse and making it an offence with professional and criminal sanctions to fail to report or to cover up child sexual abuse. We will make grooming an aggravating factor in the sentencing of child sexual offences and ensure the punishment fits the terrible crime as well as overhauling the way information and evidence is gathered on child sexual abuse.
“The false narratives from the media and harmful rhetoric around child sexual abuse that have been spouted this week have been worrying and seek only to divide us, not to honestly help the victims of these heinous crimes.
“When I am out on the doors speaking to constituents it is clear to see that people want civility back in our politics. They want to know that whatever disagreements I have with the Conservatives, the Lib Dems, Reform or the Greens, that I will work constructively with them.
“While politics can and should be a ‘contact sport’, I genuinely worry about the state of our national conversation. As long as I have the privilege to serve as your Member of Parliament, I will always respect the views of those who did not vote for me and the genuinely held views of those who sit on the other side of the aisle.”