Busy week in the lead up to prorogation. There was good news with the Domestic Abuse Bill becoming law. But the bad news is that the Government, once again, rejected proposals to protect leaseholders from cladding costs.

Also this week, the Electoral Commissionn announced an investigation into Conservative Party over the funding for the renovation of the Prime Minister's Downing Street flat. And the Public Accounts Committee held a meeting on the Culture Recovery Fund. 

read more.

COVID-19 forced the closure of museums, galleries, cinemas, music venues, nightclubs, theatres, arts centres, archives and heritage sites from the 23 March 2020, with many not due to reopen until summer 2021. Even when they can reopen they are likely to have reduced visitor capacity. The Government’s answer to supporting these cultural institutions and businesses was the Culture Recovery Fund. This was a £1.57 billion fund of grants and loans designed to support only 75 per cent of these struggling businesses and organisations.

read more.

This week the Public Accounts Committee questioned the most senior Treasury officials about their contact with David Cameron and Lex Greensill. This is just the beginning of our work on lobbying and the Greensill scandal - we’ll be working closely with our sister select committees to pursue this issue. See here to watch a recording of the session. 
 

read more.

Today at the Public Accounts Committee, I questioned the most senior civil servant at the Treasury about Greensill and lobbying.

See here to watch the hearing in full 

read more.

This week I've been working with my frontbench Labour colleagues to press the Government over lobbying and the Greensill scandal. I challenged a Minister at an Urgent Question (see here) and I voted in favour of a parliamentary inquiry to get to the bottom of this. The Government's majority meant this initiative was defeated but the Public Accounts Committee will be investigating alongside other select committees. See my round-up for further details. 

read more.

Throughout the pandemic there’s been too little transparency from the Government about how it spends our money.

I pressed the Minister over whether a six-week inquiry is enough to shine sunlight on the millions of taxpayers’ money given to organisations such as Greensill. 

read more.

See this powerful film about mothers learning of their son's death.

Calling with information about knife crime may feel hard - but there are harder calls. If you ever have any information about knife crime, you can anonymously call Crimestoppers and help prevent further deaths.

See here for further information and to learn more about these mothers' stories. 

read more.

Pages