Ripon MP ‘confident’ covid tests supply is improving after complaints system is in ‘chaos’

Skipton and Ripon MP Julian Smith has said the supply of covid tests is improving after complaints that the system is in “chaos”, with health workers and residents left empty handed.

Mr Smith was told at a North Yorkshire County Council meeting on Friday that there have been no lateral flow tests available at Skipton’s pharmacies with staff at the town’s vaccination centre also unable to get tested as demand soared over the festive period.

Conservative councillor Mike Chambers, who represents the Ripon North division, described the system as being in “chaos” after people in the city have struggled to get test kits.

Mike Chambers

Mike Chambers

Independent councillor Andy Solloway, who represents Skipton West, told the meeting the shortages were putting a strain on the local economy and had also led to some residents launching abuse at pharmacy staff. He said:

Conservative MP Mr Smith said the government recognised there has been a surge in demand for tests and that while supply chains were improving, he would write to Health Secretary Sajid Javid to highlight the issue.

He said:

“The government is aware there was a big crunch point just after Christmas and they are now more confident on supply.

“This is an important issue as we need to get people confident to go to their workplaces, particularly health workers and others on the frontline.”


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‘Ridiculous situation’

Friday’s meeting also heard complaints from Conservative councillor Stuart Martin that health workers – including a family member – had been unable to get tested.

Stuart Martin

Stuart Martin

Councillor Martin, who represents Ripon South and is also chairman of the county council, said:

“My daughter is a paramedic and some of her colleagues came to my door over the Christmas break as they were unable to access any testing kits whatsoever.

“Luckily we had a couple of tests that we were able to give them, but this is a ridiculous situation.”

It comes as the government has said the current Plan B covid restrictions will remain in place for now.

Changes from tomorrow

It has also been announced that people who test positive with a lateral flow test do not need a follow-up PCR test if they do not have symptoms. These changes come into force from tomorrow.

Mr Smith told Friday’s meeting that he believed the Plan B rules – which include working from home, face coverings on public transport and in public places, and NHS covid passes – were “relatively soft” and that the decision to stick with them was “proportionate”. He said:

“It feels as if that judgement has been correct, but obviously there are still very strong crosswinds on parts of the NHS.

“We are not out of the woods yet and we all need to do whatever we can to encourage the following of the rules.”

Ripon MP Julian Smith resigns from second jobs worth £144,000

Conservative MP for Skipton and Ripon Julian Smith has resigned from three roles advising businesses that earned him £144,000 a year.

The latest MP’s register of interests, published today, shows Mr Smith ended contracts with Hygen Energy, Simply Blue Management and MJM Marine on November 16.

Mr Smith was dragged into the debate around Tory ‘sleaze’ following the resignation of Owen Paterson MP. Mr Smith is paid an £81,932 salary for being an MP.

He received criticism from Brian McDaid, former parliamentary candidate from the Skipton and Ripon Labour Party, who accused Mr Smith of not focusing his time on his constituents.

Mr Smith resigned from his three roles the day before Prime Minister Boris Johnson proposed to ban MPs from acting as paid political consultants or lobbyists.

All the roles were approved by the Advisory Committee of Business Appointments.

The Stray Ferret asked Mr Smith to comment but we did not receive a response.


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Mr Smith’s second jobs

Mr Smith was Secretary of State for Northern Ireland from July 2019 to February 2020.

In August 2020 he began advising Hygen Energy, previously known as Ryse Hydrogen. Its chief executive Jo Bamford also owns Wrightbus, a Northern Ireland bus manufacturer. The contract was for £60,000 for 20 hours of work.

He was also paid to work for 30 to 40 hours over 12 months for MJM Marine, a cruise ship refurbishment company based in County Down. This contract was also for £60,000.

In January 2021 he began another role, advising Cork-based sustainable energy and aquaculture company Simply Blue Management. He was paid £24,000 for up to two hours work per month.

WATCH Ripon residents give their views on MP Julian Smith’s £144,000 consultancy work

We went out on the streets of Ripon today to ask people about the controversy surrounding their MP Julian Smith’s paid consultancy work.

Mr Smith, who has represented Skipton and Ripon since 2010, could lose £144,000 under proposals put forward by Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

Mr Johnson wrote to Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle yesterday proposing MPs are banned from acting as paid political consultants or lobbyists in order to maintain public confidence in Parliament.

Mr Smith, who earns £144,000 from three part-time consultancy roles, all of which were approved by the Advisory Committee of Business Appointments, would be one of the worst affected MPs if the new proposals come into force.

Mr Smith’s constituents in Ripon today expressed mixed views. Some said it was acceptable because the earnings had to be declared and it was healthy for MPs to have a wide range of skills. Others disagreed and questioned whether his consultancy commitments meant less time working for his constituents.

Watch our video to hear residents’ views.


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Ripon MP Julian Smith could lose £144,000 under PM’s plan to end consultancy work

Skipton and Ripon MP Julian Smith could lose £144,000 of consultancy earnings under proposals put forward by Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

Mr Johnson wrote to Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle yesterday proposing MPs are banned from acting as paid political consultants or lobbyists. He said it would help maintain public confidence in Parliament.

Former Northern Ireland Secretary of State Mr Smith, a Conservative who has represented Skipton and Ripon since 2010, would be one of the most severely affected MPs.

He earns £144,000 from three part-time consultancy roles, all of which were approved by the Advisory Committee of Business Appointments.

According to the BBC, more than 200 MPs received earnings in the last year on top of their £81,932 salary.

Mr Smith, who also owns three London properties, is listed as the second highest earner of consultancy fees behind Andrew Mitchell, the Conservative MP for Sutton Coldfield, who is paid more than £180,000 for six consultancy roles that take up 34.5 days of work.

The Stray Ferret has contacted Mr Smith but he had not replied by the time of publication.


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Julian Smith’s jobs

Ryse Hydrogen: £60,000 for 12 months. He is expected to work 20 hours.

In August 2020, Mr Smith took an advisory role with Ryse Hydrogen. Its chief executive Jo Bamford also owns Wrightbus, a Northern Ireland bus production company that has a relationship with the Northern Ireland Office in government.

Simply Blue Management: £2,000 a month for one or two hours a month over 12 months.

In January, Mr Smith began advising Cork-based firm Simply Blue Management. Its website describes itself as ‘the leading early stage developer of sustainable and transformative marine projects’.

MJM Marine: £60,000 for 12 months. He is expected to work 30 to 40 hours.

In March, Mr Smith began advising MJM Marine on ‘business development’. The company calls itself a ‘leading international specialist in cruise ship refurbishment’. It’s based in County Down, Northern Ireland.

Stray Views: For goodness sake, save Harrogate Christmas market!

Stray Views is a weekly column giving you the chance to have your say on issues affecting the Harrogate district. It is an opinion column and does not reflect the views of the Stray Ferret. See below for details on how to contribute.


Council negativity towards Christmas market is affecting traders

The benefits to the town of the Christmas market are enormous and the increased footfall and spend attests to this. The market is close enough to the town centre for everyone to benefit.

Unfortunately, Harrogate Borough Council this year has decided otherwise. It is saying that “the event plan did not take into account the risk of overcrowding and necessary evacuation procedures, counter terrorism measures and the ongoing risk of covid”.

However this is not the case — the site is open with easy access to the outside, the council closes the roads and there are big concrete blocks at the top of the hill. It doesn’t get overcrowded — it’s less busy than indoor shopping centres, football stadia, nightclubs etc where people are in close contact for more than the guidelines of 15 minutes.

That the council was not in touch with the organisers prior to making this decision reflects very badly on them.

Organising an event of this nature takes a great deal of time and planning and attractions have already been booked, such as the reindeers and Father Christmas! It is very late in the year for stall holders to make alternative arrangements.

I am a local craftsman and rely on events like this to stay in business, and I am only one of many in a similar situation. The government policy at the moment is to get the economy moving again as soon as possible.

Harrogate Borough Council’s negative attitude is hindering this process.

Lyn Grant, Harrogate


Labour’s politics of envy over Julian Smith’s advisory roles

Thank you for giving us details of Julian Smith’s lists of advisory roles. He is obviously highly regarded by these organisations who value his skills and expertise, why otherwise would they recruit him?

The comments of ex-Labour candidate Brian McDaid are wholly inappropriate. MPs on all sides of the House of Commons have similar advisory rolls and provided they are recorded on their register of interests they are quite normal.

Might I add that I have had occasion to seek Mr Smith’s assistance on three occasions since he was elected as the MP for Skipton and Ripon and he has on all occasions responded promptly and met me locally at his regular surgeries.

His re-election suggests he is doing the job by the electors. The politics of envy will never be a worthy news item.

Brian Hicks, Pateley Bridge


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Poor shopping, beggars… is it any wonder people are avoiding Harrogate?

Today I met with a friend from outside the area who was saying how much she used to enjoy coming in to Harrogate to shop but doesn’t come in any more.

The reasons given were so many empty shops, cheap discount stores on what was the upmarket street and beggars sitting and almost partying around the town.

I later walked up Parliament Street and in a doorway just before the old Debenhams store there were five people with drinks, sleeping bags etc and a mess on the pavement that appeared to be vomit.

Is it any surprise that people are becoming reluctant to come in to Harrogate? Do enough people care and if so what can be done about it?

Sandra Fielding, Harrogate


Do you have an opinion on the Harrogate district? Email us at letters@thestrayferret.co.uk. Please include your name and approximate location details. Limit your letters to 350 words. We reserve the right to edit letters.


 

MPs watch: third jobs, dining on the Stray and vaccination passports

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.

In April, normality began to return to the district as retail, leisure and outdoor hospitality reopened. On April 9, Prince Philip died and the three district Conservative MPs paid tributes to him.

We asked Harrogate & Knaresborough’s Andrew Jones, Skipton and Ripon’s Julian Smith, and Selby and Ainsty’s Nigel Adams if they would like to highlight anything in particular that they have been doing this month, but we did not receive a response from any of them.

Here is what we know after analysing their online presence.

Andrew Jones, Harrogate and Knaresborough MP.

Andrew Jones, Conservative Harrogate and Knaresborough MP.

In Harrogate and Knaresborough, here is what we found on Mr Jones:

 

Julian Smith, Conservative MP for Ripon and Skipton.

Julian Smith, Conservative MP for Ripon and Skipton.

 

In Ripon, here is what we found on Mr Smith:

 

Nigel Adams, Conservative MP for Selby and Ainsty which includes rural Harrogate.

In rural south Harrogate, here is what we found on Mr Adams:

Watchdog refuses to release correspondence with Ripon MP over £3,000 an hour role

A parliamentary watchdog has refused to publish its correspondence with Skipton and Ripon MP Julian Smith about his £3,000-an-hour advisory role.

The Stray Ferret revealed in August Mr Smith would be paid £60,000 for 20 hours work for low carbon transport company Ryse Hydrogen.

Because of his former government role in Northern Ireland, Mr Smith sought advice from the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments about a potential conflict in taking the role with Ryse.

In 2019, when Mr Smith was Northern Ireland secretary, Jo Bamford, the executive chairman of Ryse, became owner of Ballymena-based bus manufacturer Wrightbus.

The Bamford family owns JCB and are Conservative Party donors.


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We asked Acoba, which advises former ministers on employment and conflicts of interest after leaving office, to provide details of its correspondence with Mr Smith.

The FoI response said Lord Pickles, chair of Acoba, considered that disclosure of the correspondence “would be likely to inhibit the free and frank provision of advice and exchange of views; and would be likely to prejudice the effective conduct of public affairs”.

It added:

“The information being withheld includes that which was provided voluntarily by Mr Smith to
enable Acoba to properly advise on the application that had been made.

“Disclosure of the information requested would, or would be likely to, make applicants
reluctant to share information as freely with Acoba in future, especially if there was any
perceived sensitivity about the information. This in turn would compromise the advice that
Acoba is able to give.”

The response said the publication of its letter to Mr Smith on its website had fulfilled public interest requirements.

The letter said the appointment was not a conflict of interest, provided Mr Smith does not lobby on behalf of the company or advise on government contracts in the two years after he departed as Northern Ireland secretary in February this year.

The Stray Ferret is to request an internal review of the decision.

 

Harrogate district MPs vote as Brexit bill clears Commons

Two Harrogate district MPs voted in favour of the government’s Internal Market Bill yesterday, helping to take it to the next legislative stage.

Andrew Jones, Harrogate and Knaresborough MP, and Nigel Adams, Selby and Ainsty MP, voted in line with the government but Julian Smith, Skipton and Ripon MP, abstained.

The legislation paves the way for the UK to override parts of the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement. MPs voted it through at the third reading last night by 340 to 256.

The Bill sparked controversy after Northern Ireland secretary, Brandon Lewis, said it would break international law in a “specific and limited way”.


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The Stray Ferret contacted Mr Jones, Mr Adams and Mr Smith asking why they voted the way they did. None had replied by the time of publication.

The Bill will now undergo further scrutiny in the House of Lords.

What is the Internal Market Bill?

After the UK left the EU on January 31 it signed the Withdrawal Agreement.

The agreement included a Northern Ireland Protocol, which was designed to prevent a hard border returning to the island of Ireland.

The Internal Market Bill attempts to override parts of the agreement. It would allow the UK to modify or reinterpret state aid rules if the two sides do not strike a future trade deal.

Strayside Sunday: Covid testing should be devolved to local authorities

Strayside Sunday is our weekly political opinion column. It is written by Paul Baverstock, former Director of Communications for the Conservative Party. 

Life, it has been said, is just the correct apportionment of blame.

It certainly seems that way in politics and the media coverage of it. I’m as guilty as the rest, often writing negative opinion in this column and raging against the machine in conversation. Time for some perspective I feel.

Last Sunday I wrote about the dilemma faced by former Northern Ireland Secretary and Ripon MP Julian Smith in whether or not to support a new trade bill that would break international law and ignore the Northern Ireland protocol he signed when in office. When the moment of truth came Mr. Smith found enough moral fibre and courage to abstain, thereby preserving his principle, avoiding conflict with his own party leadership, safe in the knowledge that his vote would not put too much of a dent in the government’s whopping majority in parliament. He made a mature political decision to do the right thing both by the people of Northern Ireland and by the party he represents. For this he is to be applauded.

Contrast this with the position of Harrogate’s Andrew Jones MP. A remainer, Mr. Jones waved through the bill, voting with my old boss Iain Duncan Smith, Jacob Reese-Mogg, Steve Baker and the rest of the European Reform Group ultras, for a law that breaks previous agreements with the European Union and breaks international law.

There may well be good reasons for this (although preserving his odour with the Conservative Chief Whip is not one them), but, as ever, Harrogate’s MP is reticent, some might say invisible, when it comes to explaining the reasons behind his actions to the people he purports to represent. Try as they might, I understand the journalistic staff of The Stray Ferret can’t extract comment or explanation from Mr. Jones, nor his office. At worst this pattern of behaviour is undemocratic, at best it is disrespectful, regardless it is cowardly.

But governing is always difficult; it is the consideration of competing claims and countervailing arguments. Done well and, in normal times, government should arrive at negotiated settlements, grounded in their own cogent and transparent philosophy, or “political bottom” as I call it, with enough marrow to satisfy the appetites of all interested parties, voters prime amongst them.

But as we teeter on the brink of another national lockdown; likely a 2-week “circuit break,” it does begin to feel as though the government’s response to Covid is out of control, lurching from one entirely reactive policy to the next. ‘Whack-a-mole;’ knocking local outbreaks on the head, was tried and failed, bubbling was given a go and hasn’t worked, and the ‘Rule of Six’ has lasted less than two weeks. The Government is at sea, but, let’s remember, by definition there is no playbook for handling this pandemic, unprecedented in its scale and effect. This is as true in Harrogate and North Yorkshire as it is nationally.

Our “world class” Test and Trace programme is a disaster. The national testing system is the latest in a long line of national ‘top-down’ IT programmes that are not fit for purpose. Stories of people finding it difficult to book a test online are myriad, delays are common and tests have been offered that require 200-mile or more round trips. Quietly, significant rates of false positives and false negatives confuse the picture. Consequently, as Covid rates rise again, local authority leaders are holding back testing capacity to ensure tests are available for their own key workers. Cases go unchecked, frustration mounts and decisions are made in fear.

I would imagine that this fear (of a rise in Covid infection rates) is at least in part behind Harrogate council’s decision to give a week’s notice that it will not extend permission for outdoor drinking and dining to continue on Stray land outside the The Blues Bar. Hot on the heels of the mess made of the Stray by the World Cycling Championships the council worries publicly that, as Autumn sets in, slippery conditions underfoot will endanger the local public and leave it with a turf repair bill. Sod it, I say. The more than 3000 people who have signed a petition against the council’s plan seem to agree.

I understand that government has to find a way to act in our best interest while reassuring us that all will be well. But fobbing us off with jobsworth “elf and safety” justifications for actions taken to protect us from the coming second wave will not wash.

Local authority leaders are also exasperated with Westminster’s efforts to recruit a national workforce of Trace Agents. Beyond the fact that few of these people possess the established local, third sector and civil society networks which enable effective communication with local people, they also lack detailed knowledge of the key societal variables driving both Covid behavioural compliance and outbreaks; such as the nature of local housing stock, family living patterns, travel habits, culture and language. This is, in fact, what local authorities are in business to do. We need to let them get on with it.

Tracing efforts were initially outsourced to national private providers such as Serco (offering a one size fits all approach) when, instead, local authorities would much rather use their own staff, equipped both with specialist epidemiological training (asking the right questions in the right order) and a detailed understanding of their own patch. This is how it works round here and all that. Our MP’s, Messrs Adams, Jones and Smith, ought to be advocating loudly and publicly for this approach, rather than following blindly the party line that all is well in Test and Trace land. They must know that this is beyond politics; it’s a matter of life and death.

That’s my Strayside Sunday.

 

 

 


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Harrogate district MPs claim almost £17,000 in expenses

The three MPs whose constituencies include the Harrogate district received almost £17,000 in expenses between them in the latest round of claims, which were published today.

The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority reveals details of MPs’ expenses every two months.

For the latest period, which covers March to the end of May, Skipton and Ripon MP Julian Smith claimed £4,649.21, Harrogate and Knaresborough MP Andrew Jones claimed £4,718.82 and Selby and Ainsty MP Nigel Adams claimed £7,497.56.

The largest sums for all three were to pay the Conservative Policy Research Unit, which is a pooled research facility for Conservative MPs. Each MP claimed in excess of £3,000 for this.

Jones’s details include four mileage claims for £96.75 each, which relate to 215-mile trips to and from London.

One claim is dated March 23, the day the country went into lockdown. Another is on March 26 – the date Parliament shut down. MPs were still expected to attend the House of Commons until then.


Read more:

Strayside Sunday: Pay MPs more and ban outside interests

Andrew Jones MP enters devolution debate


Smith’s smallest claim is 77p for an item of stationery. He also claimed £575 office costs for rent. His entry on the IPSA register does not include any claims for travel.

Adams’ claims include £12 for having his constituency office window cleaned on May 11 and £493 for gas and electricity. He also submitted receipts for £3,550 accommodation costs for rent.