Westminster Report

BY David Burton-Sampson MP for Southend West & Leigh.

WE are launching the biggest ever national conversation about the future of our health service and residents of Southend and Leigh can now join in.

I would really encourage you to get involved with the government’s consultation on health and tell us what your views are on the best way forward for the NHS.

It is vital that you all share your ideas for the future. Make sure your voice is heard!

Issues with the NHS make up a large part of our casework. Residents tell us loud and clear that our NHS is broken but we now need your help to fix it.

You can go to the online platform Change.NHS.uk to register your views and help us build a health service fit for the future. Whatever your concerns are, tell us what it has been like for you using the NHS and what are your frustrations, as well giving us your ideas for improvement.

The consultation will run for five months and is also available via the NHS app, plus there will also be an option for people to send in their contributions by post.

These challenges are facing our NHS after 14 years of mismanagement and decline under the former Conservative government. The insight from the consultation will inform the government’s Ten-Year Health Plan, due to be published in the Spring, which will deliver the unprecedented long-term reform needed to turn the NHS around.  Labour founded the NHS, we have fixed it before, and we will fix it again.

And that is not the only thing we have been improving. The Employment Rights Bill has been introduced to parliament as we committed. I met with Deputy Prime Minister, Angela Rayner, as the bill came before parliament for debate.  The bill is the biggest uplift for workers’ rights for a generation and will help make work pay for millions of people.

As well as being busy in parliament, I have been out and about in the constituency too. I was able to join Essex United for their Durga Puja celebrations. I really enjoyed joining the community festival celebrating the triumph of good over evil.

The Essex Federation of Small Businesses gave me a warm welcome when we met. The group discussed concerns over the skills gap, and I agreed that it was vital for education to match up to the requirements of the workplace, to train people for the right roles in future. It was great to have an open and honest discussion with the business owners and reassure them that Labour is on their side.

There is still a lot of work to be done and it is my mission to make progress in removing the scourge of sewage from our estuary. We will be discussing clearing up the waters at a special water quality summit in November. It will be attended by the water company and the water regulator OFWAT, as well as local representatives. I will work together with the water company to hold them to account, engage with resident’s views and we will agree an action plan to move forward to a future, free from sewage dumps.  I will report back on progress next month.

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