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 January the third national lockdown has dominated life in the district, with non-essential retail and hospitality closing and the majority of school children now being taught from home.

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 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.

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

• On January 13, Mr Jones revealed on his website that he had visited the Great Yorkshire Showground to check on progress with the vaccination programme. At that point, he said the site had vaccinated over 3,000 people at a rate between 125 and 135 people per hour.
• Writing on his website later in January, he called the latest lockdown the one “nobody wanted”. However, he said the vaccines now provide “light at the end of the tunnel”.
• Mr Jones was contacted by a constituent in Knaresborough who told him that she had received two pre-packed sandwiches, two mini yoghurts, an apple, an orange and two potatoes to feed her son for five days. ‘This simply isn’t good enough,’ the MP wrote on his website.
• At a Commons debate on the Financial Services Bill on January 13, Mr Jones spoke about the cycle of debt that some constituents become trapped in. He said debt is “sometimes very easy to get into and very hard to break out of.”
• He voted in favour of the ‘authorisation of criminal conduct’ clause in the Criminal Conduct Bill that gives protection to police or MI5 agents working undercover to commit criminal acts “where it is necessary and appropriate”.
• On January 26, Mr Jones voted down an amendment to the Environment Bill to enshrine air pollution limits in law.
• Mr Jones met virtually with fellow MPs and figures from the rail industry as part of his role as co-chair of the Transport Across the North APPG.
• The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority published its latest annual report of MPs expenses which revealed that in 2019/20, Mr Jones spent £174,597.97 on accommodation, office, staffing, staff absence, travel and other costs.

Read more:

• Harrogate district MPs claim £536,000 in expenses last year
• MPs watch 2020: the year of coronavirus, Brexit and free school meals

Julian Smith, MP for Ripon and Skipton.

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

• The Ripon MP was appointed an external advisor to a green energy company at a rate of between £1,000 and £2,000 per hour. It’s the second lucrative advisory position he has taken in a year. Both companies have ties to Ireland, where Mr Smith spent time as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland in 2019/20.
• Mr Smith tweeted 13 times in January, including a tweet that marked a year since he helped to broker a historic power-sharing agreement in Northern Ireland.
• He retweeted celebrity PE teacher Joe Wicks announcing his return to YouTube.
• He also voted in line with the government on its controversial ‘authorisation of criminal conduct’ clause in the Criminal Conduct Bill.
• The expenses report revealed Mr Smith spent £170,235.42 last year.
• Mr Smith was interviewed on the BBC’s Today Programme on Saturday criticising the EU’s decision (and then retraction) to over-ride the Brexit Northern Ireland border deal and create checks on vaccine’s coming into the UK.  Mr Smith called the act “almost Trumpian”.

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

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

• The MP hit out at the Yorkshire Post for running a story about vaccines from Yorkshire being redistributed to the south of England. He tweeted that the story was “irresponsible and sad”. In a public row with a number of conservative MPs on the report, the paper’s Editor robustly defended the story.  
• The expenses report revealed Mr Adams spent £191,616.52 last year, the most of our three MPs.
• He tweeted 16 times in January, including a screenshot that revealed he walked 24,101 steps in one day.
• A big sports fan, Mr Adams hailed the England cricket team’s series win over Sri Lanka.
• The minister for Asia called on the Hong Kong authorities to “end their targeting of pro-democracy voices.”