Isle of Wight East MP explains vote against Employment Rights Bill

There are only two Conservative places on this cross-Party committee and I am delighted to have been chosen despite being a newly elected MP.

I look forward to putting my experience of working for a national nursing charity to good use and helping to solve the pressures in social care, dentistry, GP practices and our hospitals and ensuring the Government brings forward speedy reforms.

Earlier this week, Parliament debated the Employment Rights Bill – a proposed law that contains a wide variety of provisions including substantially increasing the powers of trade unions.

Joe Robertson at Aspire's new building (Image: Joe Robertson)

The Labour MPs who spoke in the debate have received combined donations of over £300,000 from the unions.

I spoke from the Opposition benches and raised concerns about the extra burden many of the provisions will place on small and micro businesses.

The Government’s own economic analysis says that the Bill will increase costs to employers which will be proportionately higher on smaller businesses.

The Bill will also increase costs in the social care sector and for the NHS.

Small and medium sized social care employers and GP practices have no headroom for any further costs.

The promised social care reform and fairer funding should come first so I voted against the Bill but it passed with Labour votes.

Locally, I visited the Christmas Stocking Appeal at Victoria Arcade in Ryde.

Stasie and her volunteers provide Christmas stockings filled with presents for Island children whose families have suffered financial hardship.

It is a fantastic community initiative and I am very pleased to be supporting it.

I also met with the charity Aspire to learn more about the range of support they offer and see their new premises in Ryde High Street.

When the building work is completed there will be seven separate accommodation units on the upper floors for women who are struggling.

Last week was flood awareness week and I am working to address flooding issues that do not appear to be getting anywhere.

In the last few weeks we have seen the publication of several statutory flood reports including for Ryde but recommendations from the previous report from 2021 have not been implemented.

The Brading flood report identifies the water levels in Brading marshes – raised for bird habitats – as a potential cause of flooding which merits further investigation.

It is the same issue for the flooding of Morton Common road.

I have taken it upon myself to work with the council, the Environment Agency and the RSPB to finally tackle the causes of the main flood areas in the East Wight and get a permanent resolution for residents.