Helen challenges Government to create rural minister on first anniversary of historic by-election

MP Helen Morgan has marked the first anniversary of her election by challenging the Government to hire a minister dedicated to the needs of rural communities like North Shropshire.

Helen has this week tabled a motion that highlights the serious challenges facing countryside areas and calls for the creation of a dedicated Minister for Rural Communities.

The Lib Dem MP wants to see a new role in Government that works across departments to tackle issues hitting rural areas hardest such as the ambulance and social care crises, fuel and energy costs in the countryside and support for farming communities.

They are topics Helen has repeatedly raised in Parliament, where she has spoken 68 times in just 12 months since overturning a 23,000 majority to become North Shropshire’s first Liberal Democrat MP. Her predecessor, Conservative  Owen Paterson, spoke just three times in his last year as an MP.

Helen has since been made the Lib Dem spokesperson for Levelling Up and has highlighted how the Government policy has so far neglected rural areas despite them suffering from many of the worst services in the country.

Helen Morgan, Liberal Democrat MP for North Shropshire, said:

“My election last year showed that people in North Shropshire were fed up of being taken for granted by the Conservatives and yet 12 months on the Government has still failed to take the needs of rural areas seriously.

“From ambulance delays and energy costs to transport cuts and pressure on farmers, it is rural communities that are being hit the hardest by almost every crisis facing the UK.

“The Government can start to rectify its mistakes by installing a minister dedicated to rural communities. It’s crucial the role is cross-departmental because many of the problems we face are linked.

“North Shropshire has some of the longest hospital waits and worst bus services in the entire country. So vulnerable people wait months for an appointment and then when they get one they can’t get to hospital.

“We have an older population but the council gets no extra money for social care and our care providers are on the verge of going bust because they have to pay far more for fuel and travel further to reach their clients.

“Meanwhile services are being slashed across Shropshire but the Government keeps turning down funding bids with no explanation of why.

“The dominant theme of my first year as an MP has been Conservative chaos letting the country down and letting rural areas down in particular.

“So far Rishi Sunak has shown no interest in places like North Shropshire but he can start to put this right by listening to the Liberal Democrats and appointing a Minister for Rural Communities.”

Notes:

• Friday December 16th is the first anniversary of Helen Morgan’s by-election win
• The full text of the motion will be available here and is as follows:

That this House recognises that 1 in 5 people in the UK live in a rural community; acknowledges the significant impact of the cost-of-living crisis on rural areas; notes with concern the ongoing ambulance crisis in rural and coastal communities; further notes that farmers in rural communities are struggling with increasing running costs, unfair trade deals and a botched rollout of the ELMS scheme; further notes that councils in rural communities are struggling to deal with an increasingly strained budget and are often required to spend a greater proportion of their budget than their urban counterparts on social care; and finally calls on the Government to create a cross-departmental Minister for Rural Communities to lead the way in addressing these issues and ensuring rural communities are fully considered in decision making.