Richmond Park News: 3 December 2021

SUPPORTING BABIES AND FAMILIES

As part of my cross-party work on improving early years provision, I had the pleasure of appearing on Andrea Leadsom's First 1001 Critical Days podcast this week. Catherine McKinnell and I spoke with Andrea about why those first 1001 days are so important in a baby's life, and our shared work to ensure that every baby gets the best possible start in life. You can listen to our discussion here.

SMALL BUSINESS SATURDAY

Tomorrow is Small Business Saturday, a day to celebrate small business success and encourage shopping locally. I ask my constituents to consider Christmas shopping with local independent businesses this year, to offer them your support as they struggle with rising costs, new Covid restrictions and supply problems.

Ahead of Small Business Saturday, the Liberal Democrats have called for taxes to be cut on small businesses. This would benefit many small businesses and entrepreneurs in Richmond Park from cafes and restaurants to high street shops. Our proposed tax cut would save small businesses an average of £5,000 a year by aiding them with staff costs. It would be achieved by quadrupling the Employment Allowance to £16,000 for a period of two years.

Local small businesses are the lifeblood of our communities, offering us social spaces, necessary amenities and leisure activities. They work hard to give back to the communities that support them, too. For example the Richmond Business Improvement District sponsored last night's delightful Christmas Lights Switch On in Richmond town centre, even sending Stormtroopers and Peter Rabbit to entertain the children. Please do what you can to support them too.

COVID-19 UPDATE

With the one year anniversary of the very first vaccination coming up next Wednesday, this is a good time to encourage all of my constituents to stay on top of their vaccinations. It is critically important that we do everything we can to help stop the spread of the new Omicron variant while we learn more about how infectious it is, if it could cause more severe disease and what effect it might have on our vaccines.

Cases in London are still highest among secondary school pupils, so please do get your children vaccinated as soon as possible, using the links below to book an appointment or to see the walk-in centres where you can turn up without an appointment.

NHS London has trebled the number o