Selby and Kippax is a constituency built on coal. It’s a great honour to represent the mineworkers in our area who worked so hard to power our country, often underground for hours each week.
I see my role within Parliament to represent mineworkers’ interests – whether that’s on issues of industrial illness, pension injustice, or preserving our proud industrial heritage.
Since I was first elected in 2023, I have worked hard to understand the specific issues that mineworkers face, championing them in Parliament, and visiting people and sites across our constituency.
From my conversations with people across our area, I know that mining families lack confidence in our political system. Coalfield communities across Yorkshire know all too well the feeling of being given false promises by politicians, the impact Thatcher’s hostile pit closure programme is still felt sorely in our pit towns and villages.
I was so proud to work with colleagues across Yorkshire to ensure that the issue of mineworkers’ pension injustice was in our 2024 manifesto. In the Chancellor’s first Budget last year, we delivered on our manifesto promise and finally gave pension justice to former mineworkers in the Mineworkers’ Pension Scheme (MPS).
Eligible ex-miners received an immediate uplift to their pensions, an average of £29 extra a week. Since October, I have been working to ensure that all those who worked in the industry have their voices heard on the issue of pensions, including those in the IWMPS and BCSSS.
In addition to addressing pension injustice, the Government has made true on its manifesto
commitment to hold a full statutory inquiry into the events of Orgreave in June 1984.
It is right that we address the wrongs of the past and I am pleased that it has been a Labour government, working closely with trade union partners, that have delivered justice for coalfield communities. I also think that it is important that our former coalfields now play a leading role in shaping Britain’s future. I know that the government’s Industrial Strategy places emphasis on our former industrial heartlands, boosting economic growth and providing thousands of new jobs for our area. I will continue to work hard to ensure that our area’s potential is realised and unlocked and that we get our fair share in resources and investment as these plans unfold.
Whilst the coal industry in Selby and Kippax ended a decade ago, the spirit of the community and solidarity between people remains and I know that the legacy of the industry will always remain a key part of our shared history.