‘A privilege to serve’ – Helen looks back on 2024

Helen Morgan MP has said it has been ‘a privilege’ to serve the people of North Shropshire during a busy 2024.

The year saw Helen re-elected with a 15,000-strong majority at the July General Election, a new role on the Liberal Democrat frontbench as Health spokesperson, and 130 spoken contributions in Parliament – in which the word ‘Shropshire’ came up 54 times.

In Parliament, Helen focused on a wide variety of local issues, from problems at Shrewsbury and Telford Hospitals and with accessing rural health services, to keeping up pressure for the opening of the Oswestry to Gobowen rail link and standing up for residents impacted by flooding.

At the start of the year, Helen was campaigning to Save Whitchurch Civic Centre, petitioning residents and joining Mayor Andy Hall at protests. Shropshire Council have since committed to replacing or rebuilding the Centr, rather than demolishing it, as they initially proposed.

Issues with bed availability at Shrewsbury and Telford Hospitals were also in the news. The MP pressed for extra beds which were put in place last winter, helping ease the problem.

Over the Spring and into Summer, Helen fought plans that could have seen the tips at Oswestry and Whitchurch shut down, pushed for progress on military housing standards at Shawbury, and highlighted shocking A&E statistics at PMQs.

Towards the end of the year, protests over tax changes impacting family farms in Labour’s Budget became a major and ongoing issue. Helen met with Shropshire farmers in Parliament to offer her support and back the agricultural sector through a difficult time.

During 2024, the MP’s constituency office in Wem dealt with over 7,000 individual pieces of casework – several of which made it to the floor of the House of Commons as examples of injustices or issues which needed addressing.

This means that Helen and her team have helped nearly 20,000 people in the three years since the December 2021 by-election – 20,000 cases being a landmark that will be passed in the next few weeks.

Helen Morgan, MP for North Shropshire, said, “It has been a privilege to serve the people of North Shropshire in what has been an incredibly busy 2024.

“With help from my team, we’ve achieved an amazing General Election result, helped over 7,000 people with casework, spoken 130 times in Parliament, and worked as hard as possible to stand up for rural people and our market towns.

“I can't thank people in North Shropshire enough for their support, trusting me to represent our wonderful part of the world. I'm doing everything I can to repay that trust.”