The EU must make the same guarantees as us

Our EU exit must be conducted with all of our country in mind – a point the Prime Minister has made clear. One issue that has been raised is the important subject of the rights of EU nationals. Government policy is to guarantee the rights of EU citizens already in the UK. However, our European partners are not currently guaranteeing the same rights for British citizens in the rest of the bloc.

The UK’s upcoming departure from the EU has attracted coverage nationally and around the world, however I also continue to work on a range of other issues.

I welcome that the Government is introducing a new funding formula for schools to replace the unfair and outdated method from over a decade ago.

In recent weeks West Sussex MPs met with both the Education Secretary and the School Standards Minister on behalf of schools in the county – we continued to pursue the issue of transitional funding in the interim period before the new formula is introduced.

The provisional formula would see Crawley schools receive an extra 8.4 per cent in funding, equivalent to £5.7 million more. I’d urge everyone who wants a better deal for our schools to take part in the consultation, to ensure views from across the town and the whole county are heard.

Last week I was pleased to chair the latest meeting of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Animal Welfare.

This is a cause I received a number of emails on from Crawley residents in recent weeks. Our meeting focused on the animal welfare implications for the increasing popularity of real fur.

We also discussed the actions which can be taken to stop this trend in the future. This is a subject I’ll continue to pursue.