Report
News from Westminster
austerity
Tory levelling-up rhetoric
Economy
fuel poverty
fuel bills
Sharon Hodgson July-Aug 2022 number 153
Click on the picture above to read Sharon Hodgson MP's report - July-Aug 2022 number 153
Sharon Hodgson MP's report - July-Aug 2022 number 153
cost of living
Economy
energy prices
Tory levelling-up rhetoric
Cost-of-Living crisis
It concerns me greatly that many constituents are having to choose between eating and heating, not knowing how they will make it through the winter.
With average energy bills having increased by over 50% in the first half of 2022, and with further rises coming, doing nothing is not an option.
Cost of living crisis - help advice
fuel bills
cost of living
Tory levelling-up rhetoric
Labour
energy prices
Economy
Green energy
Labour’s plan to freeze the energy price cap would make sure people don’t pay a penny more on their fuel bill this winter.
Labour’s plan to freeze energy price cap
NHS
NHS cuts
GP appointments
Tory Cuts
Tory levelling-up rhetoric
Doctors
Labour
The doctor can’t see you now – 15% of people across the North East and North Cumbria who try to make a GP appointment don’t get one, whilst 59,947 are forced to wait over a month.
The doctor can’t see you now.
Tory sleaze
Tory Cuts
NHS cuts
Tory levelling-up rhetoric
Keir Starmer
Echo Column
column
After all the sleaze, the scandals and the failure, it’s time for proper change.
At long last, Boris Johnson has announced that he will be stepping down as leader of the ruling Conservative party. And yet, this disgraced, law-breaking Prime Minister is trying to cling to power and wait until autumn to resign as PM.
ECHO COLUMN: After all the sleaze, the scandals and the failure, it’s time for proper change.
Sharon Hodgson MP's report - Jun-July 2022 number 152
Click on the picture above to read Sharon Hodgson MP's report.
report - Jun-July 2022 number 152
Labour will sort out backlog and put patients at core of NHS.
When my constituent Adam (his name has been changed to protect his privacy) asked for an appointment with a doctor, he was made to wait three months. At the consultation he was told he needed a full hip replacement and that he would have to wait another nine months for a surgery date. Six months later, he called the hospital to ask when that date might be. The hospital told him that he would have to wait a further twelve months.
ECHO COLUMN: We will sort out backlog and put patients at core of NHS.
Sharon Hodgson MP's report - May-Jun 2022 number 151
Click on the picture above to read Sharon Hodgson MP's report number 151
Sharon Hodgson MP's report - May-Jun 2022 number 151
The announcement that Go North East will scale back bus services across the North East is utterly predictable. When central government fails to provide proper funding for bus services, companies are forced to cut back on vital bus routes because they are unviable to run. It makes a mockery of levelling up and leaves behind the communities that need public transport the most.
ECHO COLUMN: Lack of bus services makes mockery of Tory levelling-up rhetoric.

The Tories are not overseeing a cost of living crisis; they are its very cause. This year, families in the North East and nationwide will fork out an extra ten billion pounds on petrol, when compared to this time last year. This is money our families simply do not have.

