Alex Norris MP's Weekly Newsletter

Welcome to the latest issue of my weekly newsletter.  

First, some great news. As you know, one of my priority issues for my work in Parliament is tackling domestic violence. 

Last year the Government proposed changes to short-term housing benefit support. These would have significantly harmed domestic violence refuges. I’ve joined Women’s Aid in campaigning against this. 

In December I raised this with the Prime Minister. I’m really pleased to report that these plans have now been dropped. 

This is excellent news. Now we must press on to secure sustainable long-term funding for our precious national network of refuges.



As I spoke about last week, over the Summer I’m running a priorities survey to give you the chance to tell me what matters most to you. This gives you the opportunity to tell me where you think I should be putting my time and effort, and what issues specifically of those I've been focussing on are most important to you.   

You can then complete the survey by clicking the following link. I look forward to receiving all your good ideas.  

www.HaveYourSayNottinghamNorth.co.uk 

Of course, if you have other areas you'd like me to work on, you can always email me at alex.norris.mp@parliament.uk.  

This week though, I’ll be talking about some of the campaigns that the Labour Party has planned for when we return in September, and most importantly, why I think they’re important to you in Nottingham North. Please do give me your thoughts.

As I’ve said before, I will strive to send you a newsletter like this each Friday to keep you updated on the work I’m doing in Parliament as well as in our community, and to inform you of any interesting events taking place in our area. To help me with the latter, if you are running or know of anything that you think may be of interest to others, feel free to drop me an email at alex.norris.mp@parliament.uk and I will include it in future issues. Please also forward it onto anyone you think may be interested.

Build it in Britain

Nottingham’s manufacturing history is long and storied - from lace to bicycles to cigarettes amongst much more. 40 years ago, there were many large places to work: Raleigh, Boots Royal Ordnance factories, and the Babbington Colliery locally. Now all of these key industries have gone from our community.  

For many of us in our part of Nottingham these changes have meant a lack of jobs available, and under this Conservative Government, things have only got worse. Across the UK, the public sector spends over £200 billion each year procuring goods and services from the private sector. Under thus Government, these contracts are going to multinational corporations or overseas, even when we have the capacity to fulfil them here. For example, in the last three years Defence contracts worth over £1.5 billion pounds have gone elsewhere, even though there’s no obligation to open them up to overseas bidders at all.  

As a Labour Party in Parliament we think things can be different. Under a Labour Government contracts will be used to provide public benefit, expand our industrial base and drive up tax revenues. This will drive an industrial renaissance and upgrade our economy to secure good jobs, compete on the international stage and promote green industries.  

We’re committed to using public procurement to drive the engine of the private sector as part of a strong industrial strategy, which also includes: a £250 billion of investment to upgrade our infrastructure through a National Transformation Fund; a National Investment Bank and network of Regional Investment Banks; and a National Education Service to improve skills and lifelong learning.  

Areas like ours, who have been the victims of change, can only benefit from this, as we can create the jobs we need to replace those that have been lost to history.  

Voter ID

You may remember back in November I secured and led a Westminster Hall debate on Voter Registration in Nottingham North, where I called for Universal Voter Registration to be implemented so that a large section of our population, in Nottingham North and nationwide, isn’t left disenfranchised.  

During that debate I mentioned a written Parliamentary Question I tabled on 3rd November, which asked for the Cabinet Office’s estimates of how short we are on the electoral register in Nottingham North. The answer I got was that the Cabinet Office does not know. That lack of knowledge is not born out of disinterestedness or discourtesy, but it is a pretty good demonstration of where we are as a nation on this issue.  

We do not know how many people are not registered; so we’re forced to draw on global estimates. It’s estimated that about 6 million people are missing from the register across the UK. On an even distribution, that would mean that more than 9,000 are missing in Nottingham North, but when it comes to those not on the register, distribution is not even. People from poorer backgrounds in a working-class community such as ours in the north and west of Nottingham are much less likely to register to vote, so it stands to reason that the number of missing voters in our area is much higher than 9,000. That is a significant proportion stacked against the 70,000 registered to vote at the latest update. That situation significantly weakens our democracy.  

But guess what?  The Government think the opposite.  

In May they piloted discriminatory voter ID requirements which denied at least 350 people their right to vote. Requiring voters to show identifying documentation could prevent or dissuade people from voting – particularly those from already marginalised groups and the 3.5 million people in the UK (7.5% of the electorate) who do not have a valid form of photographic ID.  

Electoral fraud is a serious crime and every allegation needs to be investigated fully. However, the proposals outlined by the Government are clearly disproportionate. In 2017 there were 28 allegations of impersonation out of nearly 45 million votes cast. Furthermore, the Windrush scandal has shown that it can be difficult for some communities to provide official documentation, which could prevent legitimate voters from taking part in our democratic process.  

We cannot allow the Conservative Party to undermine our democracy, which is why Labour is calling on the Government to scrap their voter ID plans as a matter of urgency. I will continue campaigning in the opposite direction to the Government so everyone who should be able to vote is able to.  

Rebuilding Youth Services

In the 2011/12 financial year, Nottingham City Council were able to spend over £7 million on local youth services. Since then it hasn’t been over £1.5 million, with the spending in 2016/17 less than half a million pounds – a 94% drop from 5 years previous.  

Having sat on the City Council, and been a Portfolio Holder myself, I know that this is due to Government cuts to local authorities, which has forced the Council Executive to make incredibly tough decisions on where to reduce spending.  

This is not good enough for our children. In our area, where education and skills levels are low and children growing up can seem destined to become another generation stuck in cyclical poverty, youth services can make an incredible difference to lives of young people, giving them somewhere to go, something to do, and someone to speak to. For many young people, their local youth club is the only safe space they have to get the support they need.   

This has a knock-on effect. With youth services targeted for budget cuts, the Tories have created the conditions in which crime can thrive, leaving young people vulnerable to violence and denied the opportunity to build a positive future.   

It doesn’t have to be this way.    

The Labour Party wants to give every young person the opportunity to succeed, which is why today we are announcing a bold new vision for youth services. We want to introduce new laws that requires every local authority across England to provide a minimum level of support for young people and provide the funding for them to be able to do so. To make this happen the next Labour government will establish a national body with dedicated ring-fenced funding to oversee youth service provision across England.   

This can make a real difference to the young people in Nottingham North who are currently without services for them, and I will be campaigning hard to make it a reality.  

What's On

I want these emails to be as interesting as possible. That means there’ll be some politics – it’s important that I am held accountable. But I also want to offer information about what’s on locally. So, if you have an event you’d like me to advertise, let me know.

If you would like your events advertised here, or further information on those advertised, please email me at alex.norris.mp@parliament.uk.

That’s all for now! Details of how to get in touch or to have a look at the things I’m doing are below…

All the best,

Alex