The new Liberal Democrat MPs for South Cambridgeshire, Ely & East Cambridgeshire and St Neots & Mid Cambridgeshire supported an amendment to the King’s Speech which would see action taken on sewage dumping, cost of living and the NHS.
MP for South Cambridgeshire, Pippa Heylings said she was proud to back the Liberal Democrat amendment to the King’s Speech, in particular the amendment’s focus calling on the Government to ‘stop the scandal of sewage dumping against which the previous Government failed to take action, including by replacing Ofwat with a new regulator’.
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She said: “One of the key issues that residents are horrified by in South Cambridgeshire is the dumping of raw sewage into our treasured chalk streams such as the Rivers Mel, Rhee, Shrep and Granta.
“I have campaigned long on this issue, and I am proud to have used one of my first votes to urge the Labour government to go further, calling on them to stop this scandal – caused by a failure of Government to get tough – by replacing Ofwat with a new regulator which has the power to reign in the water companies and get them to clear up their mess.”
Another section of the Liberal Democrat amendment pledged ‘to support families with the cost of living and tackle poverty, including by introducing a national food strategy, extending free school meals to all children in poverty, and by scrapping the two-child benefit cap, and to ensure that rural communities and farmers receive adequate support’.
Charlotte Cane, MP for Ely & East Cambridgeshire said: “The two-child benefit cap creates avoidable poverty for children and families across the country. Scrapping this policy will not only help thousands of children, but also help parents find better employment opportunities.
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“Labour may have set up a new Child Poverty Commission, but children in poverty simply cannot wait for this Commission to report before the two-child cap on benefit payments is lifted.”
The Lib Dem amendment also proposed ‘the introduction of a legal right to see a GP within seven days, a guarantee for cancer patients to start treatment within 62 days from urgent referral, free personal care in England, and better support for carers, a cross-party commission on social care’.
Ian Sollom, the new MP for St Neots & Mid Cambridgeshire said; “Years of chaos and dysfunction have left our NHS its knees, our local services at breaking point, and patients facing long and worrying waits for diagnosis and treatment.
“In the election, residents were clear with me just how difficult accessing primary care has become, with getting to see their GP an 8am phone lottery and NHS dentists few and far between. That’s why the Liberals Democrats put health at the heart of our manifesto.
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“Fixing the NHS and care is a vital step in repairing the damage the Conservatives have done to the economy.”
The Conservatives and SNP both failed to vote for the measures put forward by the 72-strong Liberal Democrat grouping in Parliament.
