January Update
January Highlights
📥Cases opened for residents: 728
📤Cases closed for residents: 847
⏳Total number of cases we are currently working on: 486
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
Expanding Total Number of Surgery Locations
I hold surgeries on Saturday mornings, almost every weekend, now rotating around 13 locations in the constituency. Occasionally, my surgeries will be moved to other days or times to accommodate other business or events that take place on Saturday.
Any resident of Leeds South West & Morley is welcome to attend any walk-in surgery or book an appointment at any appointment-only surgery.
Typically, if you want to have a much longer conversation, the appointment-only surgeries are a better option because the walk-ins can get very busy.
For a full timetable, please email my office.
Current locations: St John’s Church in Wortley, Farnley Community Centre, New Farnley Community Centre, West Leeds RUFC, Churwell Community Centre, Gildersome Meeting Hall, Drighlington Methodist Church, Morley Labour Rooms, Constituency Office, Tingley Community Centre, West Ardsley Methodist Church, St Michael’s in East Ardsley, Christ Church in Lofthouse.
If you’d prefer a telephone call or house visit, I can accommodate these, especially for residents with disabilities.
Fireworks Debate Rages On
Thank you to everyone who emailed, commented and spoke with me ahead of the debate in January. I was the final backbencher to speak at the end of the 3-hour debate, so I only had a few minutes to make the arguments that you have made to me in large numbers.
In response, the Minister stated that the Department is continuing to collect evidence in this area, including looking at the impact of changes to the law in Scotland, before any decision is taken.
I acknowledge that there isn't a consensus view on this yet, but the volume and frequency of firework use continue to negatively impact many of my constituents’ lives, so I'll be coming back to this issue and monitoring the department's progress.
You can read my Westminster Hall contribution here:
Goodbye Finlay
Finlay Ferguson, who has served as my Office Manager since July 2024, has now left for a big new role at West Yorkshire Combined Authority.
Those of you who met Finlay know what a hard working and genuinely great guy he was while working for us in Leeds South West & Morley and we wish him all the best in his new job.
I have recruited a new Office Manager and will publish more information about this person very soon.
Road Safety in Leeds South West & Morley
Road safety is one of the main concerns residents in raise with me daily.
Even when residents know a road in Leeds South West & Morley is dangerous, we're often told that a fatality has to occur, or that the mean average speed must be higher, before something is done.
Now that the Government has published its Road Safety Strategy, I spoke in Parliament to raise some of the roads you've asked for support with. It will take time to implement the full strategy and some of it will require legislation which also takes time (sometimes a bit too much time) to pass through Parliament.
In the meantime, I will always take feedback about roads that can be improved in Leeds South West & Morley too. Please email me with your feedback.
The new strategy can be read here:
My question to the Minister:
Speaking for our Hong Kong Neighbours
Many of you already know that one of our neighbours here, Chloe Cheung, has to live with a £100,000 bounty on her head, issued under the guise of Hong Kong’s repressive ‘National Security Law.’ It can be collected by anyone who takes her to the Chinese embassy.
I have challenged this shocking case of transnational repression repeatedly in the House of Commons. In January, I challenged the Government to keep Chloe and others like her safe, following the approval of the new embassy.
Although the Government and our security services, including MI5, have concluded that there are security advantages to consolidating the 7 existing Chinese diplomatic properties into 1 location, the Hong Kong community are still extremely concerned. They have enriched our community since their arrival and should be protected against international threats while they rebuild their lives here.
My challenge to the Government:
Supporting our Armed Forces
I continue to engage with the Armed Forces Parliamentary Scheme so that I better understand their work, current policy, and where they need further support. As always, I’m very grateful for the work of SSAFA and VINT locally, who support veterans across Leeds South West & Morley.
Our Armed Forces personnel and their families make great sacrifices to keep us all safe. The least they deserve is decent, safe housing.
That’s why I supported a new Armed Forces Bill in January, which will end years of poor housing and unfit living standards. This Bill includes a new Defence Housing Service, with an additional £9 billion set aside to renew and repair 36,000 military homes.
It also:
🔵 Extends the Armed Forces Covenant across central government, devolved administrations and local authorities, putting a legal duty on public services to reflect the needs of serving personnel, veterans and their families.
🔵 Strengthens access to support in areas such as social care and employment, improving fairness and outcomes for tens of thousands of service personnel and veterans.
🔵 Improves the Service Justice System, giving service police and courts stronger powers and providing better protection and support for victims.
🔵 Introduces new measures to tackle sexual violence, domestic abuse, stalking and harassment, in line with the mission to halve violence against women and girls.
🔵 Boosts national readiness by expanding and modernising the reserves system, including earlier mobilisation, higher recall age limits and extended liability, with opt-out protections.
Supporting Peace Efforts in the Middle East
In my new capacity as Chair of Labour Friends of Israel, I visited the Civil-Military Coordination Centre in Israel with United States Lieutenant-general Patrick Frank to see first-hand how efforts to distribute vital humanitarian aid into Gaza are progressing. Alongside this, I spoke with Israeli opposition politicians ahead of the election to share thoughts on how the Netanyahu-era can be brought to a long overdue end when the country goes to the polls later this year.
Being a friend of Israel necessitates being a friend of Palestine and the only viable solution is one where two nations can exist side by side, with Hamas removed entirely and a new progressive Israeli Government prepared to work for peace. I also spoke with elected politicians, appointed staff and former ambassadors in Bahrain who are as committed to the two-state solution as I am, to establish ties and discuss coexistence in the region.
There’s much more work to do here but I remain both hopeful and extremely cautious about the progress we can make here over the next year. There will be much more to say on this soon.
I spoke with the media while visiting Israel:
Backing our Community
While being an MP requires me to be in Parliament or elsewhere from Monday to Thursday, I try to fill my diary with as many constituency events and meetings as I can between Friday and Sunday, every week.
This month, I was very pleased to convene the Local Reference Group who will help lead the process we need to follow to spend £20 million of Pride in Place funding on ‘Farnley East’. This group is made up of Farnley residents and individuals with a stake in the community. Our first task is to further engage with the community and begin the recruitment for a Neighbourhood Board.
I also met with leaders at the Orthodox Church in New Farnley and we’re in the process of arranging meetings between the church, police, the council and residents to address the ongoing parking concerns on the Maples.
In addition to this, I made lots of calls with residents as I do every month, took meetings with community organisations including Rievaulx Care Home, met with a potential operator for Morley’s permanent banking hub and even did an intense workout with the excellent PTs at JD Gym at the bottom of Churwell Hill.
And, as always, we continued our regular door-to-door work, collecting casework from residents each weekend. Door knocking is for life, not just election times.
If there is a business, community organisation or volunteer operation you’d like me to get involved with, please just email me!
📧mark.sewards.mp@parliament.uk