Parliament wasn’t sitting this week and like a lot of colleagues I’ve been focused on supporting our candidates for the local elections.
Councils deliver many of the services people rely on and I want a strong team at the town hall to work with.
I really enjoyed the opportunity to speak to so many of you on the doorstep about the issues that matter to you and to listen to your thoughts on what is working locally and nationally, and what isn’t.
I also joined in a number of briefings this week focusing on vaccine roll-out, which continues to be an amazing success, new travel rules which will enable us to take a break abroad and travel for business again and meetings to prepare for the State Opening of Parliament where I will play my own small role in supporting the Lord Chancellor and the Ministry of Justice. I also had a good catch-up with the Home Secretary about some pressing local issues.
After taking the weekend to reflect on the results, I’d like to thank everyone who came out to vote in the local elections, although I was disappointed at how low the turnout was. Some of that will be covid, but it’s also a clear signal that those of us in politics need to do more to engage with the people we seek to represent.
Congratulations to everyone, regardless of party, who won their seat in these elections and sincere commiserations to those who didn’t. It’s no easy thing to put yourself forward like that.
My team and I will be meeting up shortly to plan ahead of next year’s elections – I want to see turnout up and that means having some serious conversations on the doorstep between now and then.
