December Update and Full Year Stats
🎉Happy New Year and Thank You!
Being your Member of Parliament is an honour I will never take for granted. Thank you so much for your support and for permitting me to represent the place I was born and raised in Parliament. It’s been a busy year.
📜Casework
My team and I have opened 6900 casework requests from residents in 2025 and we’ve resolved 7368 cases, which includes some that carried over from the previous year. Some matters take much more time than others, but we're working to get the best possible outcomes for anyone who contacts us.
🔊Parliament
I made 132 spoken contributions across 94 debates, statements, and questions in Parliament over 2025. I continue to serve on the Education Select Committee and I work as the Chair of the Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG), the Chair of the Parents APPG and the Vice Chair of the Funerals APPG, a role I was elected to following my work on the tragic cases involving rogue funeral directors.
🏠Constituency
In addition to holding 45 in-person surgeries across 11 different locations, I’ve worked with our community to secure a banking hub (opening in March 2026), save post office services, and secure crucial investment from Leeds United in our constituency. I’ve worked with the police to catch and punish criminals who have plagued our constituency and I know there is much more to do. I’ve also made to over 200 visits businesses, schools, community and volunteer groups in my capacity as your MP over 2025.
🎄December Highlights🎅
📥Cases opened for residents: 290
📤Cases closed for residents: 474
It’s been another busy month across Leeds South West & Morley and Parliament. My team and I continue to support as many individual casework requests from residents as we can.
Please contact us and we will always try to help:
📧mark.sewards.mp@parliament.uk
🧑🧑🧒🧒Backing Constituents and Supporting Kinship Carers
During my final surgery of 2025, a resident came to me for support with Kinship Carers Allowance.
She was a hero for taking 7 children into her care when she was asked to. However, she was then told she wasn’t entitled to Kinship Carers Allowance because it was a ‘family arrangement,’ despite the arrangement being made by social services. They changed their minds but didn’t pay her what she was owed quickly enough, which resulted in the loss of all of her savings and her family becoming reliant on food banks.
I used the last day in Parliament to highlight her case and cause with the Leader of the House.
Those who step up to provide a loving home for children who wouldn't otherwise have one, deserve our support.
Read my contribution here:
💷Update on the £20 Million Allocated to Farnley East
2026 is the year that residents will plan to spend the £20 million allocated to Farnley East, which currently covers most of Old Farnley and some small bits of Armley (the Heights). Residents will also have the final say on these boundaries once the Neighbourhood Board is set up.
In order to speed up the process, I have created a ‘Local Reference Group’ which is made up of people from the community. There were more applications than there were places, so I’m pleased to see that enthusiasm is so high to spend this money. The Reference Group is our way of demonstrating to the relevant government department that we are in a position to spend this money more quickly than the current timetable allows.
The group is meeting in January to help gather more feedback from residents, generate ideas of their own and help set up the Neighbourhood Board which must be made up of people who live and work in the area.
I’ll keep you updated as we make progress.
🤖Goodbye AI Mark
We recently said goodbye to AI Mark, the artificial intelligence (AI) version of myself created by Drighlington resident, Jeremy Smith.
This experiment couldn’t ever replace the work my team and I do on behalf of residents, but it was a brilliant opportunity to support a start-up business in Drighlington with a world-first and test what the technology was truly capable of.
I am proud that I was able to bring Jeremy to both Parliament and Downing Street to speak about the potential of AI. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Jeremy for all his work on this project; Drighlington will forever be home to the world’s first AI Member of Parliament.
Read my thoughts on lessons from AI Mark here:
🚨Dealing with Crime & Antisocial Street Drinkers in Morley
I’m very grateful to Inspector Mark Lund and the police for working very closely with me over the last few months on business burglaries in Morley, Gildersome and Drighlington. As previously reported, 4 people are now in prison and the number of attempted burglaries has dropped significantly.
We’re also working to deal with the antisocial street drinkers that have plagued the town centre. There’s lots happening on this issue, please see the December update below for full details.
Finally, if you own or run a business in Leeds South West & Morley and would like to join a WhatsApp group dedicated to disseminating information as quickly as possible, please email me the number you’d like to join the group. I’m arranging a quarterly meeting between businesses and the police in an attempt to deal with problems before they arise, insofar as that it possible.
See the full update here:
🎄Supporting our Community
As always, I continued to hold regular surgeries across our constituency and I was very pleased to meet with a number of businesses, charities and volunteer organisations. Some of the highlights this month included excellent visits to both Farnley Academy and Leeds Maths School, both of which teach students from our constituency. The questions asked by students were incredible. Whenever I visit schools in our community, the best part is almost always the questions that students choose to ask, it always reminds me that the future is very bright in Leeds South West & Morley.
I was pleased to support businesses like The Little Biscuit Pottery Painting Studio by painting some mugs and coasters with my boys and Morley's Tailor Made Sofas & Chairs with a visit on Small Business Saturday to celebrate their work creating replica House of Commons benches for the TV programmes 'Hostage' and 'The Hack.'
At the request of the Hong Kongers in our community, I spoke at a vigil to mark the tragedy of the fire which ripped through a high-rise residential area in Hong Kong and caused untold anguish for many of our neighbours here.
I attended numerous Christmas events, and I was even able to bring my family along to some of them which was wonderful. I thought the Churwell Choir sang beautifully and I was so pleased to see Beal UK’s free family Christmas event was a roaring success.
Supporting our Armed Forces Abroad
Finally, just before Christmas, I went to Estonia to support the work of our Armed Forces stationed there alongside Estonian and French forces as part of a NATO effort to protect the country and deter Russia. I can’t disclose much of what we discussed or saw but it has significantly improved my understanding of the threat we face and the essential contribution the UK Armed Forces in the region. This will shape my approach to foreign and domestic policy in 2026.
As we enter 2026, if there is something you’d like me to attend or visit, please contact me. I’m here for you and I work every day of the week, Monday to Sunday. My diary fills up very quickly but if I can accommodate it, I will.
📧mark.sewards.mp@parliament.uk