I gave up my column last week so that the Prime Minister could endorse the central plank of my recently launched industrial plan for West Cumbria; to unlock land at Moorside for new nuclear development.

I’m now working hard to drive it forward as quickly as possible with Cumberland Council, the NDA and others. I’m determined that it won’t become another promise unfulfilled for our community after so many missed opportunities and broken promises under the previous government.

If you’ve got any questions or want to find out more about Pioneer Park, visit my website at joshmacalister.uk or contact my office. 

This week I want to share another element of my industrial plan – a major upgrade of the Cumbria Coast Line to increase the number of passenger and freight services.

Upgrading our railway has been talked about for over ten years now. Like so much under the previous government, they dithered and delayed. They let the outline business case submitted by Cumbria gather dust on a shelf for years. As a desperate last minute attempt to win votes, they promised to fund it in 2024. But as with every other project it was a hollow promise, with not a penny attached to deliver it. There wasn’t even an up to date plan in place outlining exactly what was needed and how much it would cost.

When I was elected last year we had to start almost from scratch. I helped secure the funding for Cumberland Council to update the outline business case and get that submitted to government. I’m pleased to say that has now been done and credit goes to the council for moving quickly on it. The next stage is a full business case, which is required for any project before it can receive government funding (under this and all previous governments). We need £5 million to do that work and my fellow Cumbrian MPs and I are working hard to secure the money.

Once we have the full business case in place we have everything we need for a government funding decision. I will pursue securing that funding just as tirelessly as I have pursued unlocking land at Moorside over the last eleven months.

An upgrade of the railway is vital to delivering the defence and civil nuclear missions at Barrow and in West Cumbria, in particular any future Geological Disposal Facility, so I also believe we should be looking to companies like BAE Systems and Nuclear Waste Services for contributions towards the upgrade. And my colleagues and I will also be having those conversations in the months ahead.

I’m launching my industrial plan and my plan for new nuclear at a public meeting at 6pm on Thursday 26th June. Register to come along on my website or call my office on 01946 458023 and leave your full name and address.

Cumbria has always been at the heart of Britain’s energy story. From Calder Hall to Sellafield, this region has powered the nation with world-class expertise and a proud industrial heritage.

And with this government, Cumbria will be at the front and centre of our plans, this time building a clean, secure energy future. We’re doing things differently. No more dithering or delay. We’re backing builders, not blockers – cutting through red tape and making bold decisions to get Britain moving.

That means backing our nuclear industry not just in Sizewell or through Small Modular Reactors, but right here in Cumbria. It’s why we’re taking decisive action to unlock the Moorside site for a new clean energy development.

Whether it becomes home to a fleet of SMRs or another major clean energy project, it will be led by a local development corporation – working with industry, unions, and the community to deliver jobs, growth, and energy security.

This is more than a policy. It’s a drive to restore pride, create high-quality jobs, and rebuild Britain’s industrial base. Nuclear power, alongside renewables, is central to our plan to decarbonise the grid and end our reliance on volatile fossil fuels.

All of this shows that this government is serious about developing clean energy projects. We’re ready to get Britain building again – with steel, with confidence, and with communities like Cumbria central to that.

~ Keir Starmer

Josh MacAlister, Labour MP for Whitehaven and Workington, has launched ‘Get West Cumbria Growing’; a new industrial plan for West Cumbria which he says could deliver thousands of new jobs across the area and unlock land for new nuclear power generation.

The plan is a more detailed version of one he published before the 2024 General Election which laid out his priorities if elected as the area’s MP. Included are proposals to grow West Cumbria’s nuclear industry by capitalising on the government’s plan for plutonium disposition and unlocking land for new nuclear at Moorside. The plan also highlights the need to expand the Port of Workington to open up West Cumbria’s economy to new markets and create further opportunities to diversify away from reliance on nuclear decommissioning whilst also supporting future work at Sellafield. 

Writing exclusively for the Whitehaven News / Times & Star this week, Josh says the plan “sets out a roadmap for a prosperous and diverse economy in West Cumbria”.

Central to the plan is the case for unlocking land at Moorside, which has been the biggest barrier to securing new nuclear power generation in West Cumbria since the collapse of the NuGen deal in 2018. According to Josh, unlocking this land is absolutely critical to West Cumbria’s nuclear future.

Josh said:

“West Cumbria is the birthplace of the civil nuclear industry, representing the first clean energy revolution in the last century. It has a rich industrial heritage in mining and steel. Yet for all of our history, and our ongoing world leading work in nuclear decommissioning, there is huge untapped potential. There are many occasions when West Cumbria has been a pioneer community, and it should be again. That’s why I have published this ambitious industrial plan to lay out the direction of travel to secure growth and jobs for our area.

“Central to this is unlocking land at Moorside where we could site small modular reactors and the industry they could power, which has been my top priority as your MP. I have spent endless hours over recent months making the case for this locally and nationally. I’ve held debates in Parliament, had more meetings with ministers on this than any other topic, and established the Cumberland Nuclear Future Board with Cumberland Council to bring together local partners united in our goal to secure our nuclear future.

“Once we have an agreement on use of the land we can motor ahead with attracting nuclear developers to the area, utilising the combination of a great plot of land, our existing nuclear industrial base, and a willing community. I’m doing everything I possibly can to get this over the line.

“I want to emphasise the partnership between me, Cumberland’s other MPs, Cumberland Council, the NDA, Sellafield Ltd and unions representing our nuclear workforce who have been working closely together on this for many months. Our community is clear; we want and deserve new nuclear.”

Read more in Josh’s column for this week’s local papers

Josh is hosting a public meeting to launch his industrial plan and discuss his plan for new nuclear in West Cumbria on Thursday 26th June at 6pm in Whitehaven. Anyone wishing to attend can sign up here.

Read the plan here

West Cumbria is the birthplace of the civil nuclear industry, representing the first clean energy revolution in the last century. It has a rich industrial heritage in mining and steel. Yet for all of this history, and the ongoing world leading work in nuclear decommissioning, there is huge untapped potential. There are many occasions when West Cumbria has been a pioneer community, and it should be again.

That is why I am launching my Industrial Plan for West Cumbria. This detailed plan, building on one I published before the 2024 General Election, sets out a roadmap for a prosperous and diverse economy in West Cumbria. One built on the strengths of the nuclear industry but not limited to decommissioning alone. 

In the coming weeks I’ll use this column to talk about the main components of the plan and what I’m trying to accomplish. The most important element of it is growing our nuclear industry; our greatest existing economic strength. This means delivering the next phase of nuclear decommissioning work, especially plutonium disposition, in a way that strengthens West Cumbria’s economy. It also means creating the conditions for new nuclear power generation.

Central to this is unlocking land at Moorside where we could site small modular reactors and the industry they could power. That has been my top priority as your MP and I have spent considerable time with ministers, advisers and officials in the energy department, at the Treasury and in Downing Street, as well as building up a constructive partnership at a local level with Cumberland Council, the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority and Sellafield Ltd. 

At the beginning I thought our best route was through the process that has been underway via Great British Nuclear since 2023. However, it became clear very quickly that West Cumbria was never seriously in the running as a site for new nuclear under this process, or indeed under the previous government. The Conservatives let NuGen collapse in 2018, rejected our bid for the STEP Fusion programme, actively blocked private nuclear development in 2023 – as the Moorside Letters you can find on my website reveal – and then purchased sites at Oldbury and Wylfa, which demonstrated a clear preference for those two locations.

We also have the future plutonium disposition programme which is an opportunity for lots of future work and investment but this would require the full Moorside site (over 600 acres) to be multipurpose.  Therefore, I’m pushing for a large chunk of land at Moorside to be released for nuclear development. With government and local partners supporting this, we could move much more quickly than any government backed process.

I’m pleased to say that at a local level we are united in our goal to bring new nuclear to West Cumbria and we are making headway with government to achieve this. I hope to have more to say on that soon.

Patients in Workington will benefit from thousands more GP appointments each year as a local doctor’s surgery receives a bricks and mortar upgrade to modernise the practice.

Josh MacAlister MP said that residents in Workington would soon feel the impact of an announcement that will ‘help deliver on Labour’s promise to fix the front door of the NHS’ and would be ‘music to the ears of patients in Workington who are too often stuck in the 8am scramble for a GP appointment’.

Backed by the Labour government’s major cash injection of over £102 million, over 1000 GP surgeries will receive vital funding to create additional space to see more patients, boost productivity and improve patient care, following years of neglect. Solway Health Centre in Workington is included in the programme.

Right now, many GP surgeries could be seeing more patients, but don’t have enough room or the right facilities to accommodate them. From creating new consultation and treatment rooms to making better use of existing space, these quick fixes will help patients be seen faster.

Solway Health Centre plan to open two new clinical rooms for use by patients across Workington, giving them capacity for an additional 3,000 patient appointments each year.

This represents the biggest investment in GP facilities in five years and is only possible because of the difficult but necessary choices made by the government in the Budget to invest £26 billion into the NHS. And it is another measure helping the Labour government shift care out of hospital and into the community.

Josh said:

“Residents in Workington tell me their frustration after enduring the dreaded ‘8am scramble’ and the difficulty that they have in getting a GP appointment. I promised Labour would help bring back the family doctor – with 1,700 new GPs recruited already, I’m delighted that our Labour Government is starting to deliver on that promise.

“But that was just the start. We said we would fix the front door of the NHS – today we’re fixing the front, the sides, the back and all the rooms in between with the biggest investment GP facilities have seen for years. A Labour government delivering on our promises for West Cumbria.”

Charlotte Walton, Managing Director of North Cumbria Primary Care Alliance, said:

“We’re delighted that Solway Health Centre has been selected as part of the Primary Care Utilisation and Modernisation Fund. This vital investment will enable the creation of two additional clinical rooms and create capacity for over 3,000 more appointments each year. It marks an important step in enhancing access to high-quality care for our community and supporting the long-term resilience of general practice.”

Health and Social Care Secretary, Wes Streeting, said:

“It will be a long road, but this government is putting in the work to fix our NHS and make it fit for the future.

“These are simple fixes for our GP surgeries but for too long they were left to ruin, allowing waiting lists to build and stopping doctors treating more patients.

“It is only because of the necessary decisions we took in the Budget that we are able to invest in GP surgeries, start tackling the 8am scramble and deliver better services for patients. The extra investment and reform this government is making, as part of its Plan for Change, will transform our NHS so it can once again be there for you when you need it.”

West Cumbrians needing urgent and emergency NHS dental care now have access to a new Urgent Dental Access Centre (UDAC) in Whitehaven.

Urgent Dental Access Centres are a new model of urgent dental care so far only rolled out in Carlisle and Darlington. The new UDAC, based in Whitehaven, is the first in West Cumbria.

The UDAC opened following months of campaigning by local MP Josh MacAlister for improvements to NHS dental access in West Cumbria. In recent months Josh has met with the North East and North Cumbria NHS Integrated Care Board (ICB), health ministers and raised the matter in Parliament to lobby for further investment in NHS dentistry in West Cumbria. It forms part of the new government’s commitment to create 700,000 new urgent NHS dental appointments this year.

The UDAC is gradually building its service capacity, experience and new ways of operating. When fully operational this summer, the UDAC will provide 140 urgent dental care appointments per week (7,280 per year) for people in West Cumbria.

In addition to the new UDAC, the ICB has commissioned a further 1,464 urgent NHS dental appointments from existing NHS practices in north and west Cumbria up to the end of September this year. An additional 451 minor oral surgeries have also been funded this year for NHS patients in north and west Cumbria.

Josh said:

“I made a commitment before the General Election to improve access to NHS dentistry in West Cumbria and this is me and the government delivering on that promise thanks to the decisions made in last year’s Budget.

“For too long local people have been left to suffer agonising tooth pain with little or no access to NHS treatment as fewer and fewer dentists took on NHS patients and urgent and emergency care struggled to cope. This investment begins to right that wrong.

“Now, working in partnership with our Integrated Care Board, who have been really responsive to local needs, west Cumbrians will be able to access this brand new provision, in addition to more appointments at existing practices.

“We’ve still got a lot of work to do to rebuild NHS dentistry after the previous government let it go to ruin, but this is a really good first step for those in greatest need.”

The Whitehaven UDAC operates Monday to Friday between the hours of 9am and 5pm and is accessible via the North Cumbria Dental Direct Helpdesk on 01228

603900. Anyone who has an urgent dental need outside of these times should

contact NHS111.

You wait years for a good trade deal and then three come along at once!

In the last three weeks the Government has announced the frameworks for three really significant trade and economic agreements with the United States, India and the EU; the world’s biggest economy, the world’s fastest growing economy and the world’s largest trading block (and our biggest trading partner).

These deals will pump billions into our economy every year, protect and create tens of thousands of jobs in sectors like steel making and cars, provide exciting new opportunities for British businesses, especially our farmers, and lower prices for us here in west Cumbria.

I want to focus on the EU deal but I do want to highlight the boost to our cattle farmers from the US deal. The NFU have long fought for access to the US market for British beef and we’ve secured ring-fenced access for 13,000 metric tonnes. Any US beef coming into the UK will have to meet our high welfare and quality standards. No cheap, hormone-treated beef will be hitting British supermarket shelves. I’ll be working with local farmers to ensure they can take advantage of this opportunity.

Our UK-EU agreement is the biggest prize. The largest and most substantial deal ever negotiated post-Brexit. However you voted in the referendum nine years ago, almost no one thinks the deal Boris Johnson negotiated was a good one and we’ve been dealing with the consequences ever since; stagnant growth, higher costs for British businesses and higher prices at the shops.

Our manifesto promised a better deal with the EU without rejoining the single market or customs union or returning to free movement. Our deal fulfils that promise. It provides a huge boost for Cumbrian farmers, who have seen lamb exports to the EU reduce by 14% over the last five years in large part due to increased checks and paperwork – we’re ending that. Our agreement also means we’ll be able to export processed meats again. The famous Cumberland sausage can be sold in Europe once more! The NFU is clear: “this deal will deliver many benefits for agri-food exports to the EU”.

Slashing bureaucracy will lower food prices, putting money back in the pockets of west Cumbrians, which is why it has the backing of Asda, Lidl and other supermarkets. The CEO of Morrisons says the deal “promises to ease a source of pressure on food prices”.

The Conservatives and Reform opposed the deal before they even knew what was in it. What’s their alternative? Deals negotiated by the Tories shafted our farmers and Nigel Farage defended allowing chlorinated chicken into the UK. Not on my watch. They need to explain to farmers, businesses and shoppers why they should pay the price for their weird ideological obsession. 

This Labour Government was elected on a mandate to make Brexit work. That is exactly what this deal does.

Cancer patients attending West Cumberland Hospital with other issues will no longer have to sit and wait in A&E after the trust implemented a new care pathway following representations from local MP Josh MacAlister.

Josh wrote to hospital trust CEO Lyn Simpson after a constituent contacted him about his wife’s experience. His wife, who is battling cancer, was sent to A&E by her GP due to difficulties with her breathing. She had to wait for several hours surrounded by other ill people, putting her at risk due to her immunocompromised status.

The trust investigated and have now developed a new care pathway for cancer patients attending hospital for emergency care. Cancer patients will now be directed to the Same Day Emergency Care unit and managed by the acute oncology team, instead of waiting in A&E. Those who are critically ill will still need to attend A&E.

Josh said:

“I am extremely grateful to the trust for responding so quickly and positively to this request, which was generated by a piece of casework that came into my office.

“I hope that it will make things just that little bit easier for west Cumbrians living with cancer when they need to attend the hospital.

“This is just one example of the dozens of cases received by my office every week which my team and I do our best to help with in any way we can. If there’s something we might be able to help you with, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.”

You can contact the office of Josh MacAlister by filling in the form at joshmacalister.uk/contact or by calling 01946 458023.

I had lots of conversations with people about immigration last week. From speaking to constituents at a street surgery, to meeting a group of West Africans who have come here to work in the NHS, to friends and family. For all the noise and emotion in the debate, I think most people agree we should have manageable net migration levels (well below the high of 900,000 net migration under the last government), control of our borders, investment in skills and training for British workers, while taking urgent steps to tackle small boat crossings. These are the principles underscoring the government’s new immigration plans and they are principles I share.

For too long, this debate has been dominated by Conservative and Reform politicians who make wild claims and promise unworkable policies they then can’t deliver which further erode public trust in the ability of governments to fix our immigration and asylum system. 

Remember the promise that Brexit meant we could control our borders and reduce net migration? The Conservatives completely lost control and the numbers shot up to their highest levels post-Brexit. Billions of pounds are now being spent as a consequence on temporary accommodation for asylum seekers who should have had their claims processed already and either been returned or allowed to settle, get jobs and pay back into the system.

On legal migration, the Conservatives ran an experiment in open borders. They allowed employers to bring in huge numbers of cheaper workers and slash investment in skills and training here in the UK, where we have millions of people not working or learning. We have many doctors and nurses in West Cumbria from West Africa who are doing a brilliant job and they are welcome here. But how can it be right that at the same time nursing courses are closing in the UK? Less talked about is the fact that we’re also taking skilled professionals away from countries that need them very badly. 

Reform promise no better. They have no plan to stop illegal immigration and their policy to reduce net immigration to zero means we wouldn’t be able to recruit controlled numbers of skilled workers who want to come and contribute to the UK.

This Labour government is getting on with the hard graft of policies which will actually work. Reducing visa numbers gradually in sectors like care and construction as we invest in skills here in Britain to get more British people into these jobs. Higher expectations on people to learn English. Speeding up the processing of asylum claims so we can end the use of hotels, return more people and allow those with a legitimate claim to settle here and integrate. And signing more agreements with third countries and forming closer partnerships on policing and criminal justice to smash the gangs at source and reduce small boat crossings.

An event celebrating Mirehouse was hailed as a “great success” by Whitehaven and Workington MP Josh MacAlister.

The event brought together local agencies and services to provide information and advice to residents on Mirehouse. Lots of activities were also on offer for people to get involved in.

The event at St. Benedict’s RUFC, hosted by Josh MacAlister MP, was attended by over 100 residents throughout the day. David Allen, Cumbria’s Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner and Cumberland Council’s deputy leader, Cllr Emma Williamson, also got involved. Cumberland Council, Cumbria Police, Cumbria Fire & Rescue Service, Home Group, Active Cumbria, Hope Haven and Mirehouse Pharmacy all participated.

Josh said:

“I held a street surgery on Mirehouse and a walkabout with the council and the police and the feedback was that people didn’t feel listened to or that enough attention was paid to their community. I wanted to address that, so I got local organisations together and put on this day to engage with residents.

“I think it was a great success, with loads of people coming along and having a good time, but also being able to talk to the police and fire service, get housing advice from Home Group, discuss their health concerns with Hope Haven or Mirehouse Pharmacy, or find out about plans to invest in physical activity in the area through Active Cumbria.

“I want to thank all the agencies who attended, Cumberland Council’s street cleaning team for giving up a day off to collect bulky waste, and of course all of the residents.

“This wasn’t a one off, I’ll continue my work with Mirehouse residents to improve the area and I’ll be looking to do similar things in other communities across West Cumbria as part of my commitment to be an active and visible Member of Parliament.”