Monday August 5th 2024
Kirsty McNeill MP (on the left) visited the Central Dalkeith and Woodburn Food Pantry.
Midlothian’s new MP Kirsty McNeill writes her first column for Midlothian View
It’s been just over a month since I became Midlothian’s MP. You are my boss so it’s important to update you on what’s been happening.
Just a few hours after the count at Lasswade High I was in Glasgow for the first meeting of our new Scottish Parliamentary Labour Party – now 37 MPs strong. That Sunday we were addressed by the new Prime Minister in Edinburgh, just after his meeting with the First Minister where he pledged a resetting of relationships with the Scottish Government – something that is already paying dividends on our joint work on Grangemouth. Then it was off on the train, ready for a Monday morning induction.
One of the very first things that happens when you become an MP is you are shown your peg in the Members’ Cloakroom and, yes, there really is a ribbon on it should you wish to hang up your sword. I only mention this because it’s important that you know the peg doesn’t have my name on it – it has ours. It’s the peg for Midlothian – a symbol that I’m only there because of and for you.
I’m already looking forward to the first school group from Midlothian visiting in the autumn – if you’re in London when parliament is sitting, remember you can contact our office (on kirsty.mcneill.mp@parliament.uk) about having a tour or meeting me there if I’m down. Likewise if you have any urgent casework please flag it to the same email address. We are in the process of hiring a full staff team and sorting a local office – please bear with us and we will get to it as fast as we can. And if you’d like to receive my regular newsletter, Midlothian Matters, please sign up at www.kirstymcneill.com/midlothianmatters.
On the second day of the new parliament all the Scottish MPs were invited into Downing Street, another sign of how Scotland will be at the beating heart of this new government. It was also that day I was invited to join the government as a minister in the Scotland Office.
As part of the wider government, I have been supporting the King’s Speech. We’ve got cracking on creating GB Energy, headquartered here in Scotland, to deliver lower bills, good jobs and energy security and we’ve already made the changes to the Low Pay Commission’s work that should see around 200,000 Scots getting a pay rise.
Of course all of this takes place against the backdrop of a truly shocking economic inheritance left by the Tories. We face a £22 billion black hole in spending for this year alone. The Treasury’s reserves have already been spent many times over and it’s only August. It was sobering being in the chamber to hear the Chancellor lay out the scale of it and the need for tough, fast decisions.
Some of you have been in touch asking about why Labour voted against the SNP’s amendment to the King’s Speech. The answer is that fighting child poverty is the cause of my life – nothing matters to me more – and anyone who has ever worked on this topic knows that giving children the best start in life requires more ambition than simply making changes to the benefit system. We need action on wages and progression at work, housing, mental health and much else: exactly what the government’s Child Poverty Taskforce has been charged with delivering. We need proper, costed plans that will make lasting change in children’s lives, not parliamentary games and social media slogans. We’ve had a lot of both in recent years and it hasn’t gotten us very far.
This is what responsible, serious government looks like. We have seen it in action again over the last week, with the Prime Minister and Home Secretary promising that far right thugs will feel the full force of the law. It is simply unspeakable that these criminals are compounding and exploiting the agony of grieving families.
We all have choices about who gets our attention. I will be focussing mine on the people who loved Bebe King, Elsie Dot Stancombe and Alice Dasilva Aguiar and all those people in communities touched by crime and violence who have come together to show that they will not be divided.
Over the last few weeks I’ve visited community groups across Scotland and here in Midlothian – including our Sure Start, libraries service, the Central Dalkeith and Woodburn Pantry and the National Mining Museum. I’ve attended the Dalkeith Festival and meetings with council officers and local police. In all of these interactions I am so struck by how many people are doing right by each other, quietly building the bonds of community through the simple act of loving their neighbours and lending a hand. That’s how I know that in the end decency and democracy will win.
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