MP for Hexham Joe Morris concludes first annual summer tour across constituency
The MP for Hexham has now concluded his first annual summer tour of the constituency.
Joe Morris, whose constituency includes the Ponteland area, visited 80 different towns, villages and hamlets over a four-week period – clocking up nearly 1,000 miles.
Each day of the tour included two drop-in advice surgeries in pubs, cafés and village halls, offering accessible spaces for residents to raise issues and share their views.
Alongside these, the Labour MP also held two street surgeries per day, going door-to-door in the constituency’s smaller villages and rural communities.
The tour was well attended and saw him have conversations with hundreds of local people, covering a wide range of topics.
Key themes raised included a lack of affordable and social housing in the area, challenges facing the farming community, leasehold concerns on new-build estates, road safety and speeding in rural areas and wider discussions on international issues including immigration and the on-going conflict in Gaza.
Mr Morris said: “Hexham is England’s largest constituency and is home to 200 towns, villages and hamlets, each with their own challenges.
“As your MP, I am fully committed to reaching every part of the constituency and speaking to as many residents as possible. I know that the best way I can represent you in Westminster is by hearing from you directly.
“The conversations I’ve had this summer, whether with Labour supporters, lifelong Conservative, Lib Dem and Green voters, or those who have never engaged in politics before, have been invaluable and will inform the work I do on your behalf when Parliament returns.
“Although this year’s summer tour has come to an end, this is just the beginning. I look forward to doing this all over again next year and in the meantime I promise to keep covering ground across the constituency, making sure that I am present and listening in as many communities as possible.”
Meanwhile, new analysis from Northumberland Labour has revealed that up to 3,305 children aged from nine months to two years in Northumberland will be entitled to 30 hours free childcare from September.
The extension to the age range for qualifying children relating to working parents by the Government fulfils a Labour manifesto commitment to cut the cost of childcare.