Westminster Report

BY Southend West MP Anna Firth.

Working towards a safer, healthier and wealthier city.

SAFER: In my previous column I talked about supporting the Jo Cox Foundation to tackle abuse and intimidation in politics. Ironically within days, a rowdy pro-Palestinian mob gathered outside the Palace of Westminster, projected antisemitic slogans onto the side of Big Ben itself, and sought to intimidate Labour MPs into voting with the SNP.

I could never have foreseen that the Speaker of the House would agree to effectively appease those protestors and others like them, by changing due process to allow Labour MPs to vote in a ‘safe’ way so as not to further antagonise the mob.

I was appalled by what happened and am pushing for a full explanation from the Speaker.

In this country the only thing that politicians should fear is the ballot box.

It’s good news that extra funding has been approved to provide security for MPs, but what about everyone else who feels threatened or unsafe? When it comes to protests, the police don’t always feel able to intervene early enough to apply the law and I aim to find out why.

Healthier: On a visit to the Eastwood Academy I was impressed not just by how well the school is doing, but by the fact that students are not allowed phones on the premises.

To me it’s a no-brainer that children who are free from the constant distraction of their phones will be able to pay more attention in class, be engaged fully in school life and concentrate on making good friendships.

Research shows that reduced screen time also helps children sleep better and experience better overall mental health.

I sit on the Education Select Committee and I support the phones ban in schools, but would like to see the Government go further in giving parents much-needed guidance on how to limit screen time at home too.

The onus should be on the tech companies to control online content, but we must all work together to keep our children safe between now and the Online Safety Bill becoming law.

Wealthier: My fourth ‘clean water and sewage summit’ saw local residents and activists have the chance to directly question Anglian Water and Southend City Council about what they are doing to clean up our waterways.

This is part of my campaign to make Southend’s beaches safe for residents and attractive to visitors and investors.

Anglian Water sent six representatives, a sign that they are taking us seriously here in Southend. From the minutes from the third meeting (October 2023), out of ten agreed action points, Anglian Water had succeeded on just six. Two were marked as ‘unclear’ or ‘work in progress’ and two were unactioned.

Anglian Water made some fair points about not having any control over excess rainfall and surface water, pipe blockages caused by people flushing wet wipes and putting fat down their drains, and builders misconnecting pipes during construction work. But I countered this robustly and told them that I was here to represent ordinary people who will look at the figures and feel angered and confused.

I asked for a detailed explanation for the recent loss of the blue flag (to indicate clean water) in Thorpe Bay. Anglian Water said that the very last sample of the year lost it the blue flag and blamed heavy rainfall the night before the tests were done. Dangerous levels of E coli and Ie – Intestinal enterococci – were found in the water.

Anglian Water promised to come back in three months’ time for my next water summit to present everyone with more data that ‘will show things are improving’.

I took a boat trip with local and regional fishermen to discuss the best ways to make the most of new fishing opportunities that have been identified in the Thames Estuary.  We now believe the manila clam beds to be 7 miles by nearly 2 miles, much bigger than initially thought, especially given that this is just on this one sand bank alone.

The fishermen also believed that the once prolific cockle beds on these sands have been overwhelmed by the clams. There is clearly a huge opportunity, with careful management, to create a new clam harvesting area to run alongside the cockle fishery.

There’s possibly an opportunity to develop new oyster beds too. Bass fishing also appears to be another area where more efficient fishing methods could be employed to help local fishermen.

I now plan to convene a Kent and Essex fishing summit in Westminster to bring together MPs and fishermen from across the region to discuss how best to take these opportunities forward.

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