Paul Blomfield Former MP for Sheffield Central
I’m heading to Westminster this morning with the Government in chaos as Tory candidates line up to take over from Boris Johnson – and distancing themselves from the man they always knew was unfit to be Prime Minister. They were all complicit in the lying that has disgraced our politics for too long, as I said last week in calling for a General Election.
Despite the limbo we’re now facing, the Government are pressing ahead with the Committee Stage of the controversial Northern Ireland Protocol Bill, on which I spoke at the Second Reading (see here) and will be speaking this week too. Before that I’ll be challenging Ministers on energy prices tomorrow and meeting with South Yorkshire’s new Mayor Oliver Coppard on cuts which threaten one third of bus services as a result of serious government underfunding.
I’ll be back in Sheffield on Thursday for the launch of the report the Race and Equality Commission, set up two years ago in response to the Black Lives Matter campaign. I’ll also be catching up with Sheffield Teaching Hospitals and, on Friday, meeting with the new NHS Integrated Care Board for South Yorkshire which replaces the Clinical Commissioning Group.
Also on Friday I’m visiting Food Works with newly elected Councillor Tom Hunt to discuss action on food poverty and, on Saturday, I’ll be speaking at the re-dedication of a plaque in Castlegate celebrating Sheffield’s role in the Anti-Apartheid Movement and committing to continuing to fight racism – as part of the exciting ‘grey-to-green’ landscaping in the area.