Scarborough and Whitby MP opens town centre office and talks about first year in Parliament

At an official ceremony on Saturday July 19, councillors, activists, campaigners, and the Mayor of York and North Yorkshire joined Alison Hume at the opening of the office and to celebrate the MP’s first year in the House of Commons.

Staff have been working “behind the scenes” for the past few months to get the former barber’s shop at 11 Northway, Scarborough, up and running as an office.

“I feel really happy about it because my constituents now know where I am, they know where to find me”, she told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS).

“If they’ve got an emergency, they can knock on the door.

"If they haven’t got an emergency, they can ring the intercom and make an appointment to see me or my team of staff, and I think it’s going to make a big difference.”

The MP had previously said she also wanted an office in Whitby.

Ms Hume noted that while it was “not financially possible”, she would be “making sure to go to Whitby once a month”.

Reflecting on her first year as a Member of Parliament, she said the hardest things about the job were being personally responsible for hiring staff as well as “learning to do the parliamentary side of things”.

She said that “the most rewarding thing is doing what I love and meeting people in the constituency who do amazing things for the community, be they volunteers, schools, or businesses”.

She added: “Scarborough’s a fantastic town, I love it.

"What it needs is a big shot of self-confidence and a big dose of hope, and I really want to do my bit to put the pride back in Scarborough, which is why I wanted a really smart office on the high street, lifting the whole look of the town.”

The MP also addressed the Government’s controversial welfare cuts bill, which was recently passed by Parliament, despite a rebellion by more than 100 Labour MPs, including Alison Hume and York Central MP Rachael Maskell.

The latter was consequently suspended by the Labour Party.

Ms Hume said she had supported the second reading of the bill after gaining concessions on personal independence payment (PIP) eligibility.

However, she voted against the final draft of the bill and backed an amendment by Ms Maskell, after “looking at the bill’s Universal Credit aspect in more depth, because there are only so many things you can do at once as an MP”.

She added: “When I looked at the proposals to cut the health element of Universal Credit from £97 to £50, and the fact that it didn’t take into account fluctuating conditions[…], I just thought this isn’t right.”

Ms Hume said that voting against the Government “was a difficult decision, but on this one I thought the Government was wrong, and I was voted in to stand up for my disabled constituents and their families.”

Asked to comment on whether she thought the York Central MP’s suspension was wrong, Ms Hume said did not want to comment on why the whip was withdrawn from her and three other MPs, but added: “[Rachael Maskell]’s an inspiration for me, and I hope to be as good a constituency MP as she is”.

Also attending the opening of the constituency office was David Skaith, the elected mayor of York and North Yorkshire.

“There is no harder-working MP than Alison.

"If we want anything to get done or any conversations that we need to have had in Westminster, then we know who to call and who to go and badger Ministers and badger MPs, it is this lady right here,” said Mayor Skaith.

He added: “We have got a big mess we are trying to fix and we’ve got to start somewhere, and I’m looking forward to doing more and more work over on the coast.”