Phil Willis MP - Member of Parliament for Harrogate and Knaresborough

Phil Willis MP (LibDem, Harrogate & Knaresborough) is giving his strong support to local NHS advice on taking care in the sun and avoiding risks associated with hot weather following a heat wave warning from the Met Office.

“Hot sunny weather can sometimes seem such a rarity in this country that we can often forget the dangers of not taking a sensible approach.” said the MP.

The election of Speaker of the House of Commons took on an air of unusual importance on Monday as ten hopefuls entered the race to be the ‘reforming speaker' who would wrestle power back from the executive to parliament and crucially re-connect the House of Commons to the British people.

Harrogate & Knaresborough MP Phil Willis was amongst the first group of MPs to be called to to ask a question at Prime Ministers Question Time by new Speaker John Bercow.
“There is an increase in applications to higher education from groups such as young black males who have traditionally not applied” said Phil Willis, “but the Government is planning to reduce the number of planned additional places from 15,000 to 3,000.
“Up to 30,000 students may be disappointed” he added.

When Norman St-John Stevas MP set up the current Select Committee system in 1979 with the approval of the then PM Baroness Thatcher, the principle that government policy should be open to vigorous public scrutiny was firmly established. The system has served parliament and the public well – though it is ironic that, at a time when public clamour for even greater scrutiny of parliament and especially MP’s is at an all time high, the government itself has become more difficult to challenge.

“At last we will finally have the inquiry that so many of us have been demanding for so long; but a secret inquiry is not what is needed” commented Phil Willis MP (Harrogate & Knaresborough) after Gordon Brown’s announcement of an inquiry into the Iraq War.

“Liberal Democrats have called for an inquiry into the build-up and conduct of the Iraq war for many years but the inquiry should be in public. We need to rebuild public trust and this cannot be done if the inquiry is not open or transparent.

Phil Willis MP (LibDem, Harrogate & Knaresborough) will be meeting local care providers on Friday.

The meeting will provide an opportunity for local members of the Independent Care Group (ICG) to put their concerns and views to Phil Willis.

“I try to keep in touch with as many care providers as I can.” said Phil Willis “This meeting is just one way that I can be updated on the major concerns facing local providers so enabling me to take up issues on their behalf.