Debating the Queen’s Speech

Debating the Queen’s Speech

One week after the General Election in December, the Queen’s Speech took place in the House of Lords chamber. While read out by Her Majesty, the document is of course written by the government of the day, and outlines the legislation it wants to put to Parliament in the coming year or two.

This last week has seen the Queen’s Speech debated by MPs. With priorities including delivery of Brexit, enshrining in law the largest ever NHS funding settlement and making sure serious offenders serve proper custodial sentences, I support the agenda and look forward to voting in favour of it in the days ahead.

The Speech includes proposals to make it law that an extra £33.9 billion every year by 2023-24 goes to the National Health Service. The NHS Funding Bill was introduced in the House of Commons earlier this week, and is due to be debated in Parliament later this month.

On Monday I spoke in the Queen’s Speech debate, about Britain’s role in the post-Brexit world. Decisions taken at home can support Global Britain abroad and so in turn help our nation be more prosperous and secure.

The last three and a half years saw our country go to the polls for one referendum and two general elections, needing to make clear on three separate occasions that Crawley and our United Kingdom support leaving the European Union.

In my speech I reiterated Crawley’s consistent position on this issue, and the wider sense of British fair play and democracy.

One such example is though support for the right of the Chagossian people – many of whom have made Crawley their home – to return to their homeland. We can still do right for those wronged by the Harold Wilson government half a century ago.

Britain is at its best as an outward-looking, ambitious, free-trading country, promoting liberty, the environment and justice around the world. The best years of Britain as a global nation lie ahead of us.

Henry Smith MP
Crawley Constituency

House of Commons, London, SW1A 0AA
01293 934554/020 7219 7043
henry.smith.mp@parliament.uk
www.henrysmith.info

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