I hope you all had a good Christmas and New Year’s and had the opportunity to celebrate it with friends and family. Thinking back 12 months, when the vaccine was not yet ready and our plans were significantly disrupted, I am glad that we all had a sense of normality again. This month I have been straight back down to Parliament. While we are all aware of public news stories, and speculation in the media – I have been focussed on getting on with the job, just like my colleagues in Government. I have also been working my way through my inbox and postbag from constituents. Of course, I will be updating residents on my thoughts from my article in last week’s Herald when appropriate to do so.

This month in particular I have been working closely with Michael Gove to ensure Building Safety works across the United Kingdom. We will get this done by making wealthy developers and companies pay to fix the cladding they put up. It is a no-nonsense approach and we have given them two months to work out how they will meet this challenge. If they cannot find a solution, we can find one for them. One particular Government announcement I strongly welcome is the £70 million strategy to fast track our veterans into public service roles like teaching, NHS and into our prisons. The funding also builds upon and improves the healthcare service we have for veterans already. Veterans make a fantastic contribution to our society and this announcement will help even more of our ex-servicemen and women.

Being a Staffordshire MP, my colleagues and I (and my team) meet many services and groups including this month meeting the Lord Lieutenant for Staffordshire, the Chief Constable, the County Council, HS2 Ltd and National Highways. The meeting with the Lord Lieutenant was particularly noteworthy, because he holds the role as Her Majesty’s representative in our County. We discussed the upcoming Platinum Jubilee celebrations in Tamworth and our local villages. I am looking forward to seeing everyone come together in celebratory events such the Big Jubilee Lunch, watching the Jubilee parade or enjoying the four-day bank holiday weekend. I also spoke about the underrepresentation Staffordshire and Tamworth has when it comes to Honours – something I am hoping we can fix.

Thank you to everyone who has sent me emails and letters over Christmas regarding my campaign to get GP appointments back to face to face. With our booster programme storming ahead and setting the precedent for the world, COVID and this Omicron variant are in full retreat. I want to see GP surgeries returning back to normal service, you want to see it too and the Government continues to provide support for GP surgeries to do it. We must work with GPs to understand their concerns, but they too must understand the concerns of the patients, that they serve.

As always, my team and I are here to help and represent you, so please do get in contact with us if you feel we are able to. Please do this by emailing me at christopher.pincher.mp@parliament.uk.