Further to my recent interventions on the issue, today I sent a joint letter with Cllr David Ellesmere (Ipswich Borough Council, Leader) to the Chair of Ipswich and East Suffolk Clinical Commissioning Group. They will make a decision next month on whether or not the proposal to transfer elective Orthopaedic services from Ipswich Hospital to a new centre in Colchester will go ahead. I think if ever there was a time to put Party politics to one side this is it. Essentially as the two most senior elected representatives in Ipswich we have both come to the same conclusion. That conclusion is that what is proposed is bad for our Hospital and not in the interests of the people we represent.

I’m looking forward to going on a socially distanced bar crawl in Ipswich on 4th July to support our local pubs after the Prime Minister announced today that they will be able to reopen on that date.

As well as pubs, a number of changes were set out today to the lockdown which will allow people to see more of their friends and families, and allow more businesses to reopen their doors to customers.

Yesterday I spoke in a debate on the BBC’s regional politics coverage in the wake of BBC plans to cut its local TV news output to reduce costs.

I, and I think many others, have had mixed views on the future of the licence fee but have stopped short of calling for it to be scrapped partly because of the BBC’s regional and local news coverage and its importance to local democracy and keeping people up-to-date on issues which don’t always make national headlines.

Senior executives at the BBC should be careful what they wish for with these plans. Public confidence in the national broadcaster is already shaky with increased concerns of bias in the Corporation’s national news coverage recently and out of touch decisions like the blocking of past episodes Little Britain and other comedies. These plans to cut local TV news coverage, which also set a worrying precedent for radio and stations like BBC Radio Suffolk, could be the tipping point which causes many more people to fundamentally call into question the licence fee and the future of the BBC in its current form.

Today the Home Secretary made a statement on the horrific terrorist attack we saw in Reading at the weekend. And I asked her whether she thought our legal system is becoming a roadblock which prevents elected governments taking decisions in the best interests the law-abiding majority.

It appears the suspect in the Reading attack was a foreign national who came here illegally in 2012 but was granted asylum in 2018 despite having being jailed for other crimes as well.

Another school visit today. I went to Copleston High School to see their new building (opened in April) and see the plans they’ve put in place to welcome back pupils in year 10 and year 12. Pleased to learn more about how they’ve been supporting all pupils remotely with a special focus on mental health. As many of you will know they’ve also been providing a community food self to support the local community. The team have done a very good job over the past couple of months in very difficult circumstances.

WEEKLY COLUMN: I have written in my column this week about debate over our statues and other cultural expressions. I share the anger at the death of George Floyd and the contempt for racism in all its forms. But we shouldn’t let his death lead to a culture war in this country where the symbols of our past are torn down without proper thought and reflection.

We should be open to having a proper debate about all aspect of our history, good and bad. And if there is strong public opposition to a statue staying in place then there should be a democratic process for this to be pursued. More often than not though I’ll be opposed to bringing down our statues. I don’t think it’s in our national character to do so and our statues often have greater significance to our past and present than whether we consider the people they represent to be good or bad by today’s standards.

Following my meeting with Highways England earlier this month, today I asked the Secretary of State for International trade to work with HE to implement their plan to end closures of the Orwell Bridge by the end of this year. With the Port of Felixstowe, East Anglia should be at the heart of our country’s ambitious trade plans but that potential won’t be fully realised until road freight and our town aren’t brought to a standstill when it’s windy.

This issue deserves national attention and I hope the Secretary of State will recognise the national significance of getting the 40 mph speed limit solution in place as soon as possible and pull all necessary strings to ensure that happens. I’ve written already to City University to ask them to move ahead as quickly as possible to complete the additional safety work in their currently closed wind tunnel. But I’ll keep raising this issue at the highest levels to ensure that it’s treated with the urgency needed and the timeline doesn’t slip.

I have now co-signed a letter to the Lord Chancellor with the Chair of the Petitions Committee about the pressing need for pet theft reform. This follows my virtual meeting with the Stolen and Missing Pets Alliance earlier this month where we presented their petition calling for pet theft to be made a specific offence with tougher sentencing.

The full video of our discussion is also now available to watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOKQOIPVIpM

Despite pet theft being raised a number of times through petitions and in Parliament over recent years, the Government hasn’t yet moved to make the necessary changes to the Theft Act which would make sentences of up to 2 years more readily available to our courts to punish this particularly cruel crime. I hope this letter will cause the Government to look again at changing the law because, as you can hear in our discussion, the law as it stands often results in pitiful sentences which only take into account the monetary value of the pet and not the emotional cost to the owners and the harm caused to the pet.

BREXIT: I was ticked off by Mr Deputy Speaker today as I used a statement on the UK-EU negotiations to ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office about Keir Starmer’s tendency to go to ground on the big issues, especially the big Brexit-related issues, and how it’s vital that by contrast the Government is resolute in ending the transition period on the 31st December and Freedom of Movement along with it.

My question was quite political and this is what the Deputy Speaker picked me up on. But while I appreciate that Keir Starmer wasn’t there to respond, frankly I felt I had to ask someone about his position given that the Leader of the Opposition doesn’t seem so sure himself.

Tom Hunt, MP for Ipswich, has welcomed the Government’s decision to reverse course on its earlier plans not to extend the Free School Meal Voucher Scheme over the summer holidays. The Government announced today that a new £120 million Covid summer food fund would be set up to ensure 1.3 million children in the most hard-pressed families receive a food voucher worth £15 a week over the 6 week summer break.

The Government’s change of course follows a number of efforts made by Hunt and other parliamentary colleagues behind the scenes to stress the importance of these vouchers to families facing hardship during Covid-19 and to urge the Government to extend them over the summer holidays. Premier League footballer Marcus Rashford also made a high profile intervention in support of the extension of the Scheme yesterday.

On 5 June, Hunt penned a letter to the Minister for Children and Families, Vicky Ford MP, detailing his support for the extension of the scheme and highlighting its importance to many families in Ipswich undergoing severe financial pressure and struggling to make ends meet. Hunt’s letter also came in the wake of a study finding that one in four children in Ipswich are living in relative poverty.

Hunt’s correspondence on the 5 June followed an earlier letter which Hunt co-signed as a Member of the Education Committee on 13 May which urged the Minister for Children to look early on into what can be done to extend the free school meal voucher scheme over the Summer holiday.

Today before the Government’s new plans were announced, Hunt was ready to vote against the Government in a motion calling for money to be available to disadvantaged children over the summer holiday.

Following the Government’s announcement today, Tom said:

“I am pleased the Government has listened to the concerns raised and has decided to extend free school meal vouchers over the summer as part of a new fund. This is an issue I have been intimately involved in as a member of the Education Committee and I know that for many families in Ipswich these vouchers are an essential source of support during Covid-19.

“In my letter to the Minister for Children almost two weeks ago, I raised the fact that there are 3 million children at risk of holiday hunger in the UK and that many of them will be children in Ipswich. This is a scenario which must be avoided and I was ready to vote against the Government today on this issue. But I am glad the Government has listened and will now provide a £90 food voucher for the most disadvantaged children over summer.

“The Covid-19 outbreak has been an exceptional time and it’s important we are ready to implement exceptional measures to ensure that no child is left behind. We will be dealing with the impact of Covid-19 on children’s education for many more months and years to come and it would only have compounded these issues if we didn’t do everything it takes to ensure children come through the summer holidays well-nourished.”