Happy New Year to everyone across the Neath constituency! I hope you had a relaxing and pleasant Christmas with your friends and family and a good start to the new year – and the new decade(!).
It’s been a big week in politics as Parliament returned to Westminster after Christmas to consider the next stages of the Withdrawal Agreement Bill, but an even bigger week for me personally as my year began with the birth of my first grandchild, Jesse Thomas Francis Kearney! We’re all very excited as I’m sure you can imagine with this thrilling new chapter of our lives and I’m so proud of my daughter and glad to say that mother, father and baby are doing well.
My offices have now returned to work, both in Westminster and in the constituency. Despite the disappointing result of the election nationally, we are all raring to go and keen to get to work again. My fantastic office team have had a well-deserved break after they worked their socks off before Christmas and I’m really looking forward to working with them again. I thank all those who voted to return me as your MP for Neath and I will continue to work hard for all constituents, regardless of who they voted for, and will work on the issues that matter to you.
Commuters returned to work with some unhappy news as rail fares across the country increased. In Wales, happily, rail fares decreased by an average of 1.1% on lines run by Transport for Wales. Of course, other operators, such as GWR that run services across South Wales, increased their fares in line with the other rail companies so some services in Wales have, unfortunately, seen increases. You can read the full story here. This just shows what a difference the Welsh Labour Government is making to our rail network. We have a long way to go, but I know that the Welsh Labour Government will continue delivering for rail passengers, and for public transport users more widely.
In party political news, the Labour Party leadership election is now underway. It’s great to see so many excellent candidates standing for both Leader and Deputy and I’m looking forward to the contest ahead. I have nominated Keir Starmer for Leader and Angela Rayner for Deputy Leader. I believe that together they will make a great team, to unite our party and, crucially, to take the fight to the Tories and ensure we secure that UK Labour Government we so desperately need.
If you have any questions or issues and want to get in touch, please do not hesitate to drop us an email on christina.rees.mp@parliament.uk or call us on 01639 630152.
I hope you all have a lovely weekend!