No time to talk Hogwarts

Welcome to the first of what will be regular columns in the Gazette. Firstly, let me say how honoured I am that the voters of Canterbury, Whitstable and the villages have sent me to Westminster as their MP.

I am both proud and humbled to have become the first Labour MP for the constituency, ending more than 150 years of Tory domination and I pledge to represent each of you to the best of my ability.

I was going to use my first column to tell you about my new life in Parliament but a couple of pressing issues have come up. The first is the massively important issue of the local NHS and the threat to the Kent and Canterbury Hospital.

A local developer has offered to build a new hospital in return for planning permission to build thousands of homes.

On the surface that seems a great offer, but dig deeper and you will see that it does not address the real problem – the chronic lack of funding for the NHS. A new hospital shell is no use without the money for equipment, doctors, nurses and other staff.

I have been having productive talks with the local NHS chiefs and challenging every move to downgrade our local services. It’s going to be a long battle, but I do believe that given enough support the people of this constituency will succeed.

The second issue is more trivial, but personal. Over the past week I have been accused of hypocrisy by a man who seems to want to take Julian Brazier’s place. During the election campaign, I made my views on grammar schools quite plain. I said that, while my sons had been to grammar school I felt, as others do, that it was not the best system and that the Labour Party does not support the building or expansion of any grammars in the UK. w

There are no comprehensive schools in this corner of east Kent; a fullyfunded comprehensive system is the future and there should be a level playing field for all children. In Kent we have a grammar school system but I don’t have to agree with it. To accuse me of hypocrisy is rather like saying someone who travels on a dieselpowered train, but campaigns for cleaner air is a hypocrite – it’s nonsense.

I know that the Tories are upset about losing and that they are desperate to smear me and Labour but personal attacks of the sort by Daniel Hamilton are unnecessary and unkind.

And as for life in Westminster, one word – Hogwarts!