The Prime Minister has been clear that there must be no attempts to remain inside the EU, no attempts to re-join it through the back door, and no second referendum. The country voted to leave the European Union, with Walsall North voting 68% to leave because the European Union is not working for Walsall people. Whilst the Government is doing something about it, Labour has now shown they've turned their backs on the people of Willenhall and Bloxwich.
The third round of talks over the summer were productive and an important building block for discussions to come. The Government has published a series of position papers on the new deep and special partnership the UK wants to build with the EU, however, we are not fourteen months on from the EU referendum and the Labour Party have already had ten plans for Brexit. They are still too divided to be able to get on with the job of delivering a Brexit that works in the national interest.
Now that MPs have returned to Westminster we have begun the Second Reading of the European Union (Withdrawal) Bill, over which there was lively and interesting debate. In bringing forward this Bill, the Government are ensuring the smoothest possible exit from the EU – an exit that enables the continued stability of the UK’s legal system, and maximises certainty for business, consumers and individuals across the UK. It's time for the country to pull together and work together. We need to make a success of Brexit for everyone.
But we can’t just focus on Brexit. In England, we have a housing safety issue when it comes to carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning, so I have drafted a Ten Minute Rule Bill which I will be presenting to Parliament this month to address this. In recent years, over 25 people have been killed each year in CO related incidents and hundreds of people are hospitalised - 264 last year. In addition to this, figures I’ve seen say approximately 4,000 people attend A&E each year with symptoms of CO poisoning. Not only is this a fatal problem, it is one of not insignificant cost to the NHS.
In a hung Parliament it is even more important that MP’s work cross-party in order to get things done. I hope we can all unite in trying to stop deaths from this "silent killer’.