Despite vehement local opposition, I am extremely disappointed that the Hillingdon Hospitals Trust Board has voted unanimously to press ahead with the closure of the Urgent Care Centre at Mount Vernon Hospital. This is hugely concerning for our community, the views of whom seem to have been largely ignored.
I have taken this forward in Parliament, raising it directly with the Health Secretary. This should be a priority for the Government. With the NHS 10-Year-Plan encouraging more out-of-hospital care to relieve demand on A&E departments, driving patients with minor injuries away from Mount Vernon and towards Hillingdon Hospital is completely out of touch with these objectives.
There is united cross-party support from neighbouring MPs Gagan Mohindra, Joy Morrissey, Bob Blackman, Oliver Dowden and John McDonnell, who is committed to upholding the long-standing tradition of Hillingdon MPs working together on important local issues. Collectively, we will continue this fight alongside council colleagues and, most importantly, residents. If you would like to get involved with the campaign, please visit: savemountvernon.co.uk.
In more disappointing news, the Mayor of London has announced plans to shut the front counters at Hayes and South Harrow police stations, two years after his broken promise to reopen Uxbridge Police Station. These closures mean it will be quicker to report a crime at Scotland Yard than anywhere locally.
With crime rising in London under Mayor Khan - including an 86% increase in knife offences in the past decade - leaving Hillingdon and Harrow without any police front counters seems especially irresponsible. I will be supporting local campaigns to reverse these terrible decisions.
I know many local parents were worried about Labour’s plans to impose VAT on independent school fees. The Government pledged that the funding would be used to recruit more teachers and to further support state education.
As a result of the rise in employers’ national insurance contributions, which Labour promised to fund, there are 13,000 teachers at risk of redundancy up and down the country – that is double the number of teachers Labour originally pledged to hire. This is just another example of the Government failing to honour its commitments, and I am campaigning alongside colleagues to make it clear that it is not too late to change direction.
First published: My Local News, August 2025
