Every month the Stray Ferret tries to find out what our local MPs have been up to in their constituencies and in the House of Commons.
MPs were not in Parliament in August due to the summer recess. They return on September 2.
We asked Harrogate & Knaresborough MP, Andrew Jones, Ripon MP Julian Smith, and Selby and Ainsty MP Nigel Adams if they would like to highlight anything in particular, but we did not receive a response from any of them at the time of publication.
So here is what we know after analysing their online presence.
Andrew Jones, MP for Harrogate and Knaresborough.
In Harrogate and Knaresborough here is what we found on Mr Jones:
- On August 2, Mr Jones hailed Harrogate Town’s win at Wembley as “the best news in ages”. He also tweeted about Notts County’s non-existent equaliser, which was quickly deleted. This led to the Stray Ferret’s Paul Baverstock suggesting that Mr Jones might not have been actually watching the game.
- According to a tweet from a constituent, Mr Jones wrote a letter about refugees crossing the channel on boats from France. In the letter, Mr Jones said the refugees “shouldn’t be crossing several safe countries” to get to the UK and he’s “working hard to find a solution to stop them”. However, the United Nations says refugees can legitimately make a claim for asylum in the UK after passing through other “safe” countries.
- On August 10, Mr Jones published figures on his website that revealed more than 15,000 people in his constituency have been furloughed from their jobs since March.
- He also welcomed news that Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust is set to receive an additional £527,000 to support Accident & Emergency (A&E) capacity ahead of the winter months.
- Mr Jones tweeted three times in August.
- On August 4, the MP welcomed £1.5m of government funding for a business park in Harrogate.
- Mr Jones released a statement welcoming the government’s u-turn over A-Level results. He said: “I am sorry for the distress and uncertainty this has caused pupils. In all about 20 students contacted me personally and I am writing to each of them”.
- Mr Jones refused to comment on a Stray Ferret story involving missing Porsche sports cars and Cllr Samantha Mearns, who works as a caseworker in his office.
Read more:
Julian Smith, MP for Ripon and Skipton.
In Ripon here is what we found on Mr Smith:
- The Stray Ferret revealed that Mr Smith has been appointed as an external advisor to a hydrogen company at a rate of £3,000 per hour.
- On Twitter, the MP for Ripon paid tribute to veteran Northern Irish politician John Hume who died on August 3.
- Fourteen of Mr Smith’s 19 tweets this month were related to Northern Ireland. He tweeted once about Ripon.
- Mr Smith praised Netflix drama The Fall which he said he was “totally glued to” during lockdown.
- On Facebook, Mr Smith complimented Ripon Catherdral’s 11,000 origami angels, which is a project organised by churchgoers to send messages to family members and key workers.
- Mr Smith advertised for a new parliamentary assistant to respond to constituency enquiries, help run his social media accounts and assist with casework. The salary has not been disclosed publicly.
Nigel Adams, MP For Selby and Ainsty
In rural south Harrogate here is what we found on Mr Adams.
- Mr Adams spoke out on Twitter on a range of subjects including Jeremy Corbyn, the debate over singing Rule Brittania at the Proms, and the sentencing of the Manchester bomber.
- Mr Adams is the minister for Asia and earlier in the month welcomed ambassadors from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries for ASEAN day. He said UK-ASEAN trade reached a 10-year high of £41.9bn in January.
- He tweeted 14 times in August including several times about Drax Power Station in Selby, which is part of his constituency.
- He visited several restaurants in his constituency that are participating in the government’s Eat Out to Help Out scheme.
