Question Time with Our MP Victoria Collins
In front to a lively audience at the Katherine Warington School, Victoria outlined her activities over her first year in the House of Commons.
In summary, she stated she is one of the 20 most active members in the House, and in just over a year, she and her small team have been involved in over 10,000 personal and political issues with residents and others. She has attended over 600 debates, questions and speeches in the House, and asked 4 questions of the Prime Minister, and held over 300 advice surgeries, meetings and other local visits.One small anecdote from her early days in the House was that she walked into a cupboard thinking it was the door to the ladies toilet!
The key subjects she focussed on include social care (especially dementia and mental health), special education needs, the cost of living and holding the Environmental Protection Agency/Water Companies to account for the appalling levels of raw sewage discharge into our river systems and streams.
As leader for the LibDems on Science, Innovation and Technology, she is a highly vocal campaigner for online safety, and is promoting ethical AI innovation, not least pushing for a standard for age for data consent, which is supported by Bernardo’s and Mumsnet.
In answering questions for the audience, she was asked what influence, as the third party in the House, the LibDems had on the Government. No hesitation in her reply – plenty – soft influence through collaboration with all parties, and hard influence through membership of select committees, parliamentary questions and through national media.
She was then asked where the LibDems are re Europe, and her answer was an unequivocal yes to entering a customs union with the EU, given the economic disaster that Brexit had always been expected to deliver.
Moving on to the question of ID cards, she was generally supportive, but they should not be mandatory, and when asked about the move to unitary local authorities, she was concerned that the efficiencies might be difficult to achieve, and that we may lose the local connection between residents and the decision makers.
On more local issues, she was asked why the Local Plan for St Albans was taking so long? In reply, when the LibDems came into power in 2022, there was no plan, as the previous Conservative prepared Plan had been rejected by the Planning Inspectors, with no attempt to revisit it. The new LibDem group had to start from scratch, and given the complexity of the issues of the plan, it was always going to be a lengthy process.
The concern now is that the Plan has been prepared in accordance with the former Government’s targets, and there is now the likelihood that the Labour Government will specify a higher level of housebuilding.
In thanking Victoria for her address and her answers to questions, Jeff Phillips, the chair of the Society, quoted from a Hansard booklet of advice to new MPs – ‘you’ll never get any thanks…..’ – a quote that Victoria recalled reading!