In January with Theresa May in China I stood in for

Jeremy Corbyn at Prime Minister’s Questions. As we

are celebrating the Centenary of some women gaining

the right to vote I used this opportunity to remind the

House that we still need to make a lot more progress

before women are fully represented in Parliament.

In light of this Centenary, I believe it is time to lower

the voting age to 16, and I made that argument to the

Prime Minister’s stand in David Lidington. Scotland

and Wales have led the way in reducing the voting age

to 16 and I believe it is time for England to follow suit.

Opposition Day Debate

On the 24th of January I led an opposition day debate

for Labour on the issue of human rights, conflict

resolution and the international refugee crisis.

I moved the motion that conflict resolution, climate

change and the protection of human rights should be

at the heart of UK foreign policy. Effective action

should be taken to alleviate the refugee crisis, and I

called on the Government to lead international efforts

through the United Nations and other international

organisations to ensure that human rights are

protected and upheld around the world.

This was an essential chance for the Labour Party to

set the agenda in Parliament and highlight the dire

situation in countries such as Myanmar, Yemen and

Syria. With President Trump withdrawing funds from

the UN agency supporting Palestinian refugees and

moving the US Embassy to Jerusalem it is clear that

the UK cannot simply continue to follow meekly behind

America and hope for the best on the world stage.

Constituency Report (February 2018)

Prime Minister’s Questions

Celebrating the Centenary of Women’s

Suffrage, 6 Feb

Campaigning in Bexley, 20 Jan

Meeting LGBT Activists from across the

Commonwealth, 23 Jan

Standing up for my constituent Shao Jiang

At Foreign Office Questions this month I pressed the

government to explain why the Foreign Secretary

believes that Turkey’s right to secure its own borders

justified its brutal attack on the Kurdish community in

Afrin. This is yet another example of a foreign power

taking advantage of the destabilisation in Syria to

pursue its own interests in the country without any

regard for international law.

On Brexit, I asked the Foreign Secretary how the

government intends to both rule out any customs union

with the EU and maintain the current arrangements on

the Irish land border. The Tories may claim that this is

not an issue, but the Good Friday Agreement means

that we cannot simply leave the Customs Union if we

do not negotiate a replacement with the EU.

Centenary of Women’s Suffrage

The 6th of February marked the Centenary of the

Representation of the People Act, which for the first time

gave some women the right to vote. Many of my Labour

colleagues and I have used this occasion to celebrate

how far we have come in representing women in public

life, but also recognising how much further we have to go

until true equal representation is achieved.

When I stood in at PMQs I made the point that the female

MPs currently sitting on the Labour benches represent a

quarter of all female MPs ever elected, and I am so far

the only Emily to be elected. In this era of punishing

austerity where women are bearing the burden for the

majority of government cuts, it is more important than

ever that we ensure women’s voices are being heard

loudly at the highest levels of government.

On the 29th of January I asked the government an Urgent

Question on the horrific Taliban attacks in Kabul. In the

space of one week jihadis attacked the the Save the

Children office in Jalalabad and the Marshal Fahim

military academy and Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul, in

total killing at least 142 innocent people.

There are actions this Tory government can take in the

country such as improve security for British humanitarian

agencies. They have taken the troubling stance of

refusing to relocate Afghan interpreters who worked with

British forces to the UK, despite knowing that they are

under constant threat from jihadis.

Attacks in Afghanistan

Interview with UK Youth Parliament Member,

7 Feb

Foreign Office Questions

Kick Racism out of Football event, 8 Feb

Visit my Mosque Day, 18 Feb

Over the past month my constituents have written to

me to express their views on a number of policy issues. Listed below are some of the most frequently

mentioned:

Key issues for constituents

Refugee family reunification

Detention of torture survivors

Assisted dying

EU Trade Bill

In the constituency and out campaigning

20 Jan: Lewisham Mayoral Manifesto Launch

20 Jan: Bexley Action Saturday

29 Jan: Mayoral Reception for Holocaust

Memorial Day at Islington Assembly Hall

30 Jan: New Members Drinks in Parliament

1 Feb: Meet and Greet with Party members in

Reading East CLP

1 Feb: Reading East Fundraising Dinner

8 Feb: Show Racism the Red Card event at the

Emirates Stadium

9 Feb: Vivienne Hayes, CEO Women’s

Resource Centre

15 Feb: Maternity Action

18 Feb: Visit My Mosque Day at Finsbury Park

Mosque

Foreign affairs and work in parliament

18 Jan: Firefighters from Hebron

23 Jan: LGBT Activists from the Commonwealth

with PinkNews and the Kaleidoscope Trust

23 Jan: Farah Kabir, ActionAid Bangladesh

Country Director, with Shadow DFID team

23rd Jan: Dr Lina Khatib, head of Chatham House

MENA Programme

24 Jan: Tom Fletcher, Former UK Ambassador to

Lebanon

24 Jan: Opposition Day Debate on Conflict

Resolution and Human Rights

25 Jan: HE Rami Mortada, Lebanese Ambassador,

with Fabian Hamilton MP

26 Jan: Speech on Scottish International Relations

at Edinburgh University

29 Jan: Urgent Question on ISIS attacks in

Afghanistan

5 Feb: Michel Barnier, with Jeremy Corbyn MP and

Keir Starmer MP

7 Feb: Harriet Lamb, CEO International Alert

7 Feb: Tim Hitchens, Chief Executive of

Commonwealth Summit Unit

16 Feb: Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’i’s in

Islington

16 Feb: National Policy Forum in Leeds

20 Feb: Foreign Office Questions

20 Feb: Sanctions Bill First Reading

21 Feb: Jo Cox Fund

Media appearances have included...

18 Jan: Breakfast with European press journalists

1 Feb: Interviews with the Reading Chronicle and

Get Reading

6 Feb: LBC

6 Feb: TALKRadio

8 Feb: BBC Question Time

9 Feb: The Last Leg

11 Feb: Pienaar on Politics

18 Feb: Peston on Sunday

House of Commons, London SW1A 0AA thornberrye@parliament.uk 020 7697 9307 (2-5pm on Mon, Tues, Thurs)

If you’d like to get involved with campaigning locally, please call the office on 0207 607 8373