Thursday 1 October 2009

Local issues dominate Jordan’s agenda
at Labour Conference

Colchester's Labour Candidate, Jordan Newell, has spent the week at the Labour Party Conference in Brighton highlighting local achievements and raising local concerns with Government Ministers.

The conference kicked off on Sunday with Jordan taking part in the opening session with Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Labour Deputy Leader Harriet Harman. Jordan joined 25 other young Parliamentary Candidates on stage with the Prime Minister as part of a show case of the next generation of Labour politicians.

On Monday, defence dominated Jordan's day at conference. After hearing speeches from the Chancellor Alistair Darling and Business Secretary Lord Mandelson, Jordan met Defence Secretary Bob Ainsworth to discuss Colchester Garrison and our town's proud military links. The theme continued into the evening as Jordan attended an event hosted by the Royal British Legion and met the RBL National Chairman Peter Cleminson and reiterated his support for our armed forces personnel and their families - past, present and future.

Tuesday was the day of Prime Minister Gordon Brown's speech to conference. However, Jordan's day started with talks on the latest plans to reorganise Colchester's secondary schools. Before the Prime Minister's address, Jordan and Labour Councillor Julie Young met Schools Minister Vernon Coaker to discuss the issues.

"Conference has been an excellent opportunity to talk about our military links with the Defence Secretary, the future of Colchester's secondary school with Eduation Ministers and to thank the Health Secretary for our brand new Primary Healthcare Centre. For me, it has been a national conference with local issues at its heart", Jordan said.

On Wednesday, Jordan met Labour's Deputy Leader Harriet Harman and the Home Secretary Alan Johnson before attending the Health Debate. He also spent some time touring the trade and charity stands at conference and met representatives of Scope, the NSPCC and the League Against Cruel Sports.

Jordan had informal meetings with several Cabinet Ministers during the week to raise local issues. He met with Health Secretary Andy Burnham to thank him for Colchester's new Primary Healthcare Centre, joined the Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband in pledging support for the Copenhagen Agreement and talked about youth unemployment with Work and Pensions Secretary Yvette Cooper.

A debate on 'Britain in the World' took place on Thursday, the last day of conference. Jordan attended the debate which was addressed by Foreign Secreary David Miliband and Defence Secretary Bob Ainsworth.

Speaking as he left Brighton, Jordan said:

"This year's conference, aside from being the launch pad for Labour's fight back ahead of the next election, has been an ideal opportunity for me to lobby for Colchester's interests, achievements and needs. Sadly, the upbeat conference I attended this week has not been the one portrayed in the media. The fact is the Earth does revolve around the Sun, but not the one printed in Wapping".