First and foremost, let me assure all my constituents that the community is pulling together as never before as we confront and beat this crisis.

 

As your Member of Parliament, I am in constant communication with the leader of the Town Council Simon Ward and the senior Birmingham City Councilor Ewan Mackey, and our Royal Town Mayor and first citizen David Allan as well as the local police, foodbanks, our local faith groups , supermarkets and the full range of statutory services. I am pleased to say we are all joined at the hip.

 

I was at the House of Commons on Monday debating the Government’s emergency measures -making sure they are extensive, proportionate and appropriate to changing circumstances; also sorting out the very real issue of burial/ cremation and the requirements of faith tradition which have now been satisfactorily addressed. I intervened several times on Ministers to assert these points in the debate and also urging clarity on the new mental health provisions.

 

Returning to our Royal Town on Tuesday morning, the lockdown is clearly being properly observed.  I needed physically to visit both our foodbanks and was pleased to see the early problems of food supply and volunteers are, at least for now, sorted. A particular thanks to Tesco New Oscott Extra store whom I have worked with closely to ensure deliveries are being prioritised for these urgent cases.

 

Having visited and liaised with local supermarkets it is clear that early problems including bad behavior at ASDA in Minworth from hording and excessive buying have largely been sorted. I am very grateful to Waitrose in Mere Green for agreeing to remain open for several more months.

 

My office is working flat out and we are experiencing 4 times the usual levels of enquiry and contact. I am hugely grateful to Emily, Arnob, James and Yasmin in Sutton Coldfield and in London for going the extra mile. We are taking up cases related to childcare, nurseries and schooling . We have made representations to the Foreign Office in respect of 45 constituents stranded abroad , around the world , in the last week alone. I have personally spoken with Foreign Office Ministers in a phone call on Wednesday afternoon to try and speed up the processing of this so we can get them safely home.

 

We have been helping dozens of constituents access emergency food support. I pay tribute to the genuine sense of community and neighbourliness throughout the Royal Town which is tackling this vital issue at this time and giving practical help and reassurance to vulnerable  people who are not surprisingly anxious and fearful

 

We have been in contact with several dozen small businesses to discuss Government support and have taken up their concerns with Treasury Ministers and with the Communities Department.

 

At the time of writing we currently anticipate the Chancellor’s announcement of support for the self-employed on Thursday - more than 50 of whom in Sutton Coldfield have been in contact: I am lobbying the Treasury to help the self-employed in the same way that we are helping those in employment. At this extraordinary moment in our history we need the financial hosepipe of working people paying their hard-earned taxes into the Exchequer to be reversed.

 

Along with MPs from across Birmingham and Birmingham City Council, Liam Byrne and I are co-chairing the MP’s group and working very closely with Andy Street’s team, our Mayor of the West Midlands and David Jamieson thePolice  and Crime Commissioner . In our conference call on Wednesday morning with the Council and all our local MPs we addressed issues covering foodbanks, local businesses and the needs of the self employed, local people stranded overseas, policing issues and the City Councils roll in providing caring services.

 

As the Royal Town has a higher elderly population than most parts of the West Midlands I am paying particular attention to my older constituents to make sure they are receiving all the support we can get to them.

 

Following early problems in our park where too many people were too close together over the last weekend , all the reports throughout this week have indicated that social distancing is now being properly  observed and that this glorious asset of ours for  people taking exercise is playing a crucial role  in the life of our town.

 

We will stick together as a community , do the right thing by our neighbours and , together work through this crisis and beat it . 

 

For regular updates and keeping up to date with important government announcements please see my Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/andrewmitchellmp  and website https://www.andrew-mitchell-mp.co.uk