Recent polling has shown us that we can elect a Labour MP in Hexham, for the first time ever. And as Labour picks up by-election successes in rural constituencies such as Selby, we know that we can be part of a General Election victory for Labour. But it won’t be easy, and we need every … Read More
Proposed changes to our railways will see many ticket offices closed and reduced staffing at stations. The proposals include closing the ticket offices at Hexham meaning that (with the additional planned closure of Carlisle booking office) the only staffed ticket office on the Tyne Valley Line will be at Newcastle. Train operators have outlined that … Read More
Jonathan Reynolds MP, Labour’s Shadow Business Secretary, responding to Jaguar Land Rover’s Gigafactory announcement, said: Labour welcomes any investment in British jobs and industry and decisions like these vindicate Labour’s advocacy of an industrial strategy in place of scattergun announcements. In spite of the Government’s cack-handed approach to industry and our economy this shows the … Read More
Since 2010, Guy Opperman’s Conservative government has systematically cut the money allocated to councils to provide the vital services we all need in Northumberland. It has been calculated by the Institute for Government these cuts by central government have reduced grants to local government in real terms by 37% between 2010 and 2020. That’s from … Read More
Free trade deals with Australia and New Zealand were trumpeted by the Conservative Government and the then PM Boris Johnson as victories for post-Brexit Britain. These trade deals came into force a couple of days ago with our current PM Rishi Sunak saying that: ‘These landmark deals squarely deliver on my priorities to drive economic … Read More
Members of the Hexham Branch of the Labour Party, supported by members from Prudhoe, Bywell, Ponteland and Allen Valleys, were back campaigning in Hexham today after our success in Hexham East in February. We hit the streets and knocked on doors in Hexham Central. We were joined by Alex Norris, the Shadow Levelling-up Minister and … Read More
The Tories’ 13 years in power have seen bus services across the country suffer. In Northumberland alone it has been calculated that over 3 million miles of bus journeys have been lost since 2016 in a sustained decline. In a betrayal of the government’s ‘levelling up promises’ almost one in ten of Britain’s rural bus … Read More
Blaydon MP Liz Twist and Prudhoe North County Councillor Angie Scott have called for a debate on water safety in the House of Commons. Last year saw the tragic death of 13 year old Robert Hattersley from Crawcrook, who drowned in the River Tyne at Ovingham. His bereaved parents have launched a campaign to raise … Read More
In October 2021, Guy Opperman and most of his Conservative colleagues voted against an amendment to the environment bill that would have placed a legal duty on water companies not to pump waste into rivers. Not all his colleagues agreed. 22 Conservatives had the strength of character to vote for the amendment. The Environment Agency … Read More
Your Conservative MP Guy Opperman claims to be tough on crime and anti-social behaviour. The truth is that over the Tories’ thirteen years of failure Northumbria Police has taken the biggest financial hit of all the police forces in England and Wales. Our local police forces have been starved of funds and resources to the … Read More
The Local Government and Boundary Commission for England (LGBCE) are undertaking a review of the number of councillors, electoral divisions and division names for Northumberland County Council. You can explore the proposals for the new divisions on the LGBCE website. There are changes proposed for a number of areas in Hexham Constituency. The public consultation … Read More
Northumberland has the third highest number of potholes of any county in the country. Over 51,000 potholes were recorded in the year 2021/22 according to reported recently in the Northumberland Gazette. Potholes are caused by damage and erosion to road surfaces by heavy traffic, inclement weather and also by sub-standard repairs caused when utilities and … Read More
This evening the Conservative Hexham MP Guy Opperman has voted to support the PM’s amendment to Labour’s Jim McMahon’s (Shadow Secretary for the Environment) Water Quality (Sewage Discharge) Bill. This Bill would have cracked down on the polluting water companies flooding our rivers and beaches with sewage but has been rendered toothless by Tory actions. … Read More
Angela Rayner, the Deputy Leader of the Labour Party has pledged to scrap zero-hours contracts if the party wins the next General Election. According to Statista there are over a million workers in the UK on zero-hours contracts. This is a fourfold increase since 2010 when the Conservatives came to power and includes 47,000 workers in … Read More
Labour pledges to revitalise our high streets. Thousands of pubs, shops and bank branches have shut under the last thirteen years of Tory economic mismanagement. In our own towns in the Hexham Constituency and Northumberland we can see evidence of this first hand with shops closing or closed in Hexham, Prudhoe, Haltwhistle, and elsewhere. … Read More
Research by the Top of the Poops shows that our rivers were polluted with sewage on 431,850 separate occasions in 2021. These sewage discharges into the rivers we love lasted a staggering 3.2 million hours! The Hexham Constituency saw 2864 discharges into our rivers. These lasted 22,670 hours with 95 different locations polluted by water … Read More