Newspaper column 23 January 2020 - APPGs

For this week’s column I thought I would touch on some of the work I have been doing in Parliament over the last few days.

As a new Member of Parliament I have been discovering that so much of the work that goes on in Westminster takes place away from the cut and thrust of the debate in the main chamber that many people associate with this place.

Instead of the somewhat confrontational theatrics that you see in Prime Minister’s Questions, a lot of work is done by MPs with shared interests working together in All Party Parliamentary Groups (APPG’s) to campaign for change across political boundaries.

As a newly elected MP I am keen to join some of these groups to help best represent the constituents and our interests of Truro and Falmouth.

One such group, whose first meeting of this Parliament I attended on Monday is the APPG for Fisheries. This Group was founded by MPs and Peers who want to promote and support the UK fishing industry, whilst exploring key questions for the future of fishing, processing, coastal communities and the marine environment.

During the election I was keen to meet with our fishing communities and speak to them about their concerns on fishing and their livelihoods after Brexit. My husband is a fisherman who fishes out of Falmouth and so these concerns have long been dear to me.

I am clear that Brexit will be a big positive for our fishermen. Yesterday at the APPG we welcomed a Norwegian delegation to discuss best practices for fisheries beyond Brexit as an independent coastal nation. I am determined to do all I can to work with colleagues from across Parliament to do all we can to support and enhance our fishing communities through Brexit and beyond.

On Tuesday, I attended the  APPG for Broadband and Digital Communications, a group of MPs who work together to further the roll out of broadband in rural and urban areas, and to look at digital communication across the UK.

In our Truro and Falmouth constituency there are a lot of rural areas, and technological infrastructure such as broadband networks costs more to roll out in these areas due to geographical challenges. Although coverage is better than it has ever been previously, there are still areas of poor or no service and I will be pleased to work with colleagues from across Parliament to end these.

The Government is already making strides to improve digital infrastructure in rural areas. In November the Prime Minister unveiled  plans for a Shared Rural Network in a visit to our constituency, which will see the government working with mobile phone providers to provide additional coverage to 280,000 homes and businesses and 16,000km of roads, virtually eradicating the not-spots that exist in some rural areas – where “No Service” plagues mobile phones. I welcome this but am keen to keep up the campaign for better broadband for our rural areas. Joining groups like this will enable me to work with like-minded colleagues to continue to do so.”