Latest figures, published by the Home Office, reveal just 8% of crimes resulted in a charge or summons across Cumbria in the last year – that includes just 4% of sexual offences, and just 7% of violent crimes.

Keir Starmer has made ‘Making Britain’s Streets Safe’ a central mission of the next Labour Government. Within a decade that would include halving serious violent crime and raising confidence in the police and criminal justice system to its highest levels.

People in West Cumbria want to feel safe – but these figures show that after 13 years of Conservative rule the vast majority of crimes are going unpunished, including some of the most serious crimes there are. 

Families in West Cumbria deserve better. That’s why Labour will make keeping our streets safe a central mission for the next government. To do that, we’ll put victims first, and we’ll restore neighbourhood policing with 13,000 new neighbourhood police and PCSOs – fully funded through a police efficiency programme – with mandatory patrols of town centres by dedicated officers.

1,151 people died in North Cumbria Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust last year while waiting for care on the NHS, as patients face record waiting times.

Freedom of information requests have revealed that record numbers of people are passing away having never received the treatment they were waiting for.

Latest data shows that around 121,000 people died across England last year while still waiting for NHS care, double the number of people who died on waiting lists in 2017/18, when the figure stood at around 60,000. The figures are also higher than in 2021, when the country was still in the midst of the Covid pandemic.

The NHS constitution states that patients should not wait more than 18 weeks for treatment, but almost half of patients in England today wait longer than that to receive healthcare. At North Cumbria Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust alone, 398 people died having been waiting for treatment for longer than 18 weeks.

The public now face the longest waiting lists in NHS history, with a record 7.6 million people waiting for treatment. There are currently 35,594 patients on the waiting list for treatment at North Cumbria Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust.

Rishi Sunak promised to cut NHS waiting lists, but there are 600,000 more patients waiting for NHS care today than when he became Prime Minister.

Far too many people in west Cumbria are waiting far too long for care, and the result is that record numbers of people are spending their final months in pain and agony, waiting for treatment that never arrives.

The basic promise of the NHS – that it will be there for us when we need it – has been broken. The longer the Conservatives are in office, the longer patients will wait.

But after 13 years of Tory failure, Labour has a plan to get our health service back on its feet. We will train the staff needed to treat patients on time again – funded by closing the non-dom tax loophole – and we will reform the service to make it fit for the future.

Data sourced by the Labour Party through Freedom of Information request has revealed patients at North Cumbria Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust are facing long waits for cancer care, showing that: 

• Patients are waiting up to 87 days to see a cancer specialist after their GP has urgently referred them to hospital. 

• Patients face waits of up to 253 days for a diagnosis or to have cancer ruled out.

• Some patients are forced to wait 226 days to start cancer treatment.

Waiting times for cancer patients in England have worsened every year since the Conservatives came to power in 2010. The government is now set to cut two thirds of existing cancer waiting times standards for patients. The latest figures revealed that the NHS met none of its cancer targets in June 2023. 

52 out of the 60 NHS trusts that responded to the FOI saw a patient wait more than half a year to start their treatment in 2022. The NHS standard is for 85 per cent of patients to start treatment within two months of an urgent referral, a target that has not been consistently met since early 2014. 

The Labour Party has committed to cut cancer waiting times down to safe levels. The party’s plans to deliver better cancer care include training thousands more doctors and nurses every year, providing NHS staff with up-to-date modern technology, and reforming the health service so it catches cancer earlier.

The Conservatives have created a crisis in cancer care, leaving patients waiting dangerously long for a diagnosis or treatment when their cancer could be spreading.

Instead of addressing the problem, Rishi Sunak has now cynically moved the goalposts. The Prime Minister should focus on cutting waiting times, not cutting standards for patients. 

Labour will get cancer patients diagnosed and treated on time again by training the doctors and nurses the NHS needs, and reforming the service to make it fit for the future.

This week I wrote to Kemi Badenoch, Secretary of State for Business & Trade, about the closure of Wilko. I asked what steps her government is taking to support any potential sale to keep as many stores open and protect as many jobs as possible.

You can read my letter below:

Dear Secretary of State,

I am writing to you with deep concern following recent news that hundreds of Wilko stores will likely close.

There are 400 Wilko stores across the UK, representing 12,500 jobs. There are two Wilko stores in Whitehaven and Workington, and for years they have provided crucial jobs for working people in our area. Behind every one of these store closures are workers who will now lose their livelihood. This is truly awful news for them and their families.

The next few weeks will be crucial for these workers’ future, and in turn for their role within our economy during a cost-of-living crisis. I am therefore writing to ask the following urgent questions:

• What steps will you now take to ensure that the tens of thousands of Wilko staff, who could now be facing redundancy, will be supported into new employment?
• What are the government doing to ensure that proper, meaningful consultation is conducted by employers and administrators and that they are prevented from exploiting loopholes that allow for workers to be laid off without having complied with the full 45-day period as clearly stated under law?
• There is still the possibility that some stores may be bought, either as part of a package or individually. What options has the government considered to support the sale of Wilko stores and protect as many jobs as possible?

Sadly shuttered up shops and struggling high streets have become the norm after 13 years of Conservative economic failure. Despite this, the Government has presented no ideas for our high streets. In contrast, Labour has a plan that will tackle the things holding firms back. We will scrap and replace the current system of business rates with a fully costed and funded system of business property taxation that levels the playing field so that our high streets can thrive; crack down on anti-social behaviour; and give council’s powers to put an end to empty premises to bring shoppers back to the high street.

Wilko is not the first example of this tragedy and, without the government matching the ambition of Labour’s plans, I fear it will not be the last.

Yours sincerely,

Josh MacAlister

New figures I’ve pulled from ONS data reveal thousands of households are struggling to pay their rent in west Cumbria as the Conservative cost of living crisis deepens.

Approaching a year after the Conservative Party crashed the British economy, prices are still rising, interest rates are soaring, and renters are finding it increasingly hard to pay the bills. 43% of renters are struggling to pay the bills – 10,654 in the former Copeland and Allerdale council areas.

The figures come as new data reveals just how hard it is for renters to get onto the housing market – with first-time buyers in the North West expected to need a staggering £36,000 deposit.

Renters in west Cumbria are being hammered by the Conservative cost of living crisis. Thousands of households are struggling to pay the bills – yet the out of touch prime minister offers nothing except patronising rubbish about holding our nerve.

The Conservative crashed the economy and the rest of us will pay the price for years to come – and renters face a double whammy. Rents are soaring, and soaring interest rates are putting that first home even further out of reach.

Families in west Cumbria can’t afford the Conservatives. Only Labour has a plan to get this country moving again. Through our mission-led government we have a plan to deliver the highest sustained growth in the G7, and we would bring in a Renters’ Charter, providing new certainty for renters, ending ‘no-fault’ evictions and introducing four-month notice periods for landlords.

The Conservative are out of touch and out of ideas. It’s time for change – time for Labour. We need a General Election now.

New analysis I’ve done based on ONS data published last month reveals soaring inflation has left the average worker in west Cumbria a staggering £1,213 worse off since 2021 – higher than in any other area in the North of England.

In 2021 the average wage in the Copeland local authority area was £35,908. Real pay fell 2.6% in 2022 and a further 0.8% in 2023.

The falls come at a time when taxes are at their highest levels in 70 years. Meanwhile, the average 2 year fixed mortgage has this month hit 6.6% – the highest since the financial crisis in 2008, and even higher than when the Conservatives crashed the economy in Autumn 2022.

Working people are taking a hammering under the Conservatives. Inflation is out of control, real wages are collapsing, and the Tory Mortgage Penalty is pushing monthly payments through the roof and keeping potential first time buyers locked out of home ownership. Yet instead of a real plan to help families through the cost of living crisis, all we get from this government is glib rubbish telling us to ‘hold our nerve’.

Families in west Cumbria need real change and a real plan. That’s what I’ll provide as the local MP and a Labour Government will provide. Our Mission-led government will prioritise strong growth and rising wages in every part of the country including places like west Cumbria.

Tory economic mismanagement is costing us all a fortune. A General Election can’t come soon enough.

I was delighted to welcome Wes Streeting, Labour’s Shadow Health Secretary, to west Cumbria to speak at a public meeting I organised on the future of emergency care in west Cumbria.

I’m concerned that the trust are struggling to provide overnight cover of doctors at A&E at West Cumberland Hospital and the impact this will have on patients.

Wes outlined Labour’s plan to double the number of medical school places to recruit thousands more doctors.

Keep up to date with my campaign to keep a fully-staffed, fully operational A&E open 24/7 at West Cumberland Hospital

I had a great meeting this week with members of Cumbria Chamber of Commerce and a tour of the facilities at Gen2. There is lots of ambition to grow local businesses. Skills, trade and infrastructure came up repeatedly.

Labour will have a significant national industrial strategy and I will ensure west Cumbria’s role in this. I’m looking forward to working with businesses to create a West Cumbria Industrial Plan that builds on the best of what we currently do.

We’re out talking to voters on the doorstep across west Cumbria every week.

This week I joined Cllr Jimmy Grisdale for a street surgery in Northside, where we talked to dozens of local residents about local and national concerns.

The main issue that came up time and time again was the Tory cost of living crisis. People here are really struggling to pay the bills and put food on the table.

We need short term help, like a proper windfall tax on energy companies to bring bills down further, but we also need a long term plan, like properly insulating tens of thousands of homes across west Cumbria to save money in the longer term.

As your Labour MP this is what I would fight to deliver.

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