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Stephen McPartland, Member of Parliament for Stevenage, is highlighting the demand for engineers as part of Tomorrow's Engineers Week and is calling for employers and universities to work together to tackle engineering skills gap.

Stephen McPartland MP said, "There is always a huge demand for the engineers of tomorrow and it is important that we all work together with employers, universities, schools and colleges to help our local young people understand the engineering skills they will need to succeed in these jobs.

"We are very lucky to be home to thousands of jobs in science, technology and engineering in Stevenage. I will continue to encourage employers in Stevenage to work with schools to give young people work experience opportunities, as well as inspirational information about the many exciting careers in engineering and technology."

Tomorrow's Engineers Week this year runs from 2nd to 6th November.

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Head teacher of Featherstone Wood Primary School, Louise Shuttleworth, invited local MP Stephen McPartland along to an Achievement Assembly. This was an opportunity for individual pupils to showcase their work and show him around their school.

Stephen McPartland MP said, "It was fantastic to see how proud the pupils are of their achievements and school. It has gone from strength to strength in the last twelve months and is rated Good by OFSTED now.  We all know that the best way to improve your chances in life is by having the chance to receive a good education and these young people are really taking that opportunity."

Stephen McPartland MP was then taken on a tour of the school by Eliza and Joe, the school's Stevenage Schools Parliament representatives. They were most impressed to know that Stephen works with David Cameron. Eliza said, "I was shocked when he told us that he has met him. It was a great experience." Joe then went on to explain that "Mr McPartland answered all our questions and we were lucky enough to have a photo taken with him at the end of the tour."

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Stephen McPartland, Member of Parliament for Stevenage, said "I am proud to help the Royal British Legion collect for the Poppy Appeal locally.

"We Will Remember Them‬."

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Stephen McPartland MP's speech on Tax Credits in Parliament today:

"It is a great pleasure to follow the right hon. Member for Birkenhead (Frank Field), who spoke a lot of sense. I join him in thanking the Backbench Business Committee for allowing us a full-day debate.

"I fully support the motion and was delighted to put my name to it. I voted against the statutory instrument because I could not support the Government. That was not an easy thing to do. I am proud to be the Conservative Member of Parliament for Stevenage, but I could not support the Government on the statutory instrument.

"I support the idea of a high wage, low tax and low welfare society, and I believe that tax credits need to be reformed. They cost more than £30 billion a year and have completely snowballed. Families visit my surgeries all the time and they are very upset about the fact that no two families are treated the same. There are huge overpayments and there are underpayments. It is an incredibly complicated system. Some £1 billion a year is lost in fraud. There are huge issues with the tax credit system, but the problem is the impact the proposed changes would have had on those families with the lowest incomes.

"I accept that the Conservative party manifesto said we would reduce the welfare bill by £12 billion. We need to look at that and I will come on to it later. Much of the debate about unemployment benefits is about how they contribute to the welfare bill, but actually they make up a very small proportion of it. For example, the reduction of the benefit cap from £26,000 to £23,000 a year was incredibly popular on the doorsteps during the election campaign, but it will save less than £100 million, because it affects fewer than 100,000 families in the whole of the UK. That is an indication of how small a proportion unemployment benefits are of the overall welfare bill.

"I stood up for those families whom I believe Labour has left behind. They occupy the centre ground and I want to occupy it, too. The Prime Minister and the Chancellor said in their conference speeches that they also want to occupy the centre ground. Those families get up and go to work. They are trying to do the right thing and to support their families and work themselves out of poverty. They are the families I support and I am happy to fight for them. It is on behalf of those families in my constituency and across the United Kingdom that I voted against the statutory instrument.

"Why have I been so vocal on this issue? I cannot believe that the impact of the changes was fully understood. The right hon. Member for Birkenhead made a very good critique of them. I want to focus on the reduction in the threshold that enables people to apply for and receive tax credits. The reduction from £6,420 to £3,850 is an instant £1,200 cut, so anybody earning more than £6,420 would be hit by a £1,200 cut right away. That is far too much of a blunt instrument.

"A teaching assistant who earns £11,000 a year has restrictions on the number of hours they can work. They do a valuable job educating the next generation of society, including future business leaders. I make no bones about the fact that I am very proud of the work they do. My wife is a primary school teacher and I am proud of her. My sister is a secondary school teacher and a large number of my family work in education and do a great job. How can they be expected to go out there and make up a £1,400 cut to their income? It is not possible. That is too much to cut all in one go. Increasing the taper from 41% to 48% would result in cuts of only £200 or £300, but reducing the original threshold would result in a £1,200 cut. I cannot support that, which is why I had to vote against the statutory instrument and why I have not since then been able to support the Government in the Lobby on this issue.

"People such as teaching assistants and cleaners do a great job in society and we need to be reaching out to them. I mention teaching assistants because I think they are a classic example of people who are constricted in the hours they are able to work. They can work only so many hours a week and so many days a year.

"The existing mitigation includes free childcare for three and four-year-olds, but if people do not have a three or four-year-old that is pointless and does not help whatsoever. There has been talk about the personal income tax allowance increasing from £11,000 to £12,500. I would like to see it go up to £15,000 by the end of the Parliament, but if people do not earn more than £11,000, it is of no use to them. People on £11,000 will still be hit by the £1,200 or £1,400 cut. That punishes people who are going out to work and doing the right thing. That does not sit right with me and I cannot support it.

"I would like to work with the Treasury on how the mitigation could work, and I hope that it will listen.

"Getting back to the people who are on £11,000 a year or thereabouts and who will be particularly punished by the policy as it stands, I am pleased that the Chancellor is now listening. Although I do not agree with what the House of Lords did, I accept that it has brought us to this position. I want the debate to focus not on constitutional issues but on the loss of income for people who have no ability to make it up elsewhere. How can we help those people?

"I have talked about the increase in the personal income tax allowance from £11,000 to £12,500, which will cost about £9 billion. The Government spend over £700 billion a year, yet it seems as though if we cannot find this £4.4 billion it will be the end of life as we know it. We all know that that is not the case. There is a way in which the effects can be mitigated.

"How do we reform tax credits without punishing those who are trying to do the right thing - those who get up, go to work and try to move their families forward? Some £3 billion of the £4.4 billion saving is down to the change in thresholds that I spoke about - the initial £1,200 cut. It is an incredibly broad instrument that will punish people whether they earn just over £6,420 or £19,000 and it must be mitigated and changed. We have to find a way around that initial £1,200 cut. It is too much and it goes too far.

"There is talk of a discretionary hardship fund. I would certainly welcome that for people who are struggling in one way or another. There has been a lot of talk about national insurance. I would like people not to pay any tax on the first £11,000 or £12,000 of their income, but that will not be looked at fully because it would be incredibly expensive. For me, this debate is about how we can help these families.

"Basic macroeconomics suggests to me that if we take £4.4 billion off the people who earn the lowest incomes, that is £4.4 billion that will be taken straight out of the economy, because it will be taken out of the pockets of people who would have spent it right away. Every pound that is taken off those people is a pound that is taken out of the shops in their local economies. It just does not make sense.

"I do want to work with the Treasury. I can be a prodigal son and be returned to the fold, I am sure.

"There is huge fear out there among the public. We need to come forward with proposals as fast as we can. I want the Treasury to talk to us, listen to us and work with us. I warn the Treasury that if it does not come forward with mitigation proposals that we find acceptable, we will continue to raise the issue and try to look after the poorest in society. I accept that Britain has 1% of the world’s population, generates 4% of the world’s income and spends 7% of welfare spending. That is too much. I am proud of the Conservative party and will continue to put fairness at the heart of it."

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Local volunteers are offering to help keep our young drivers safe on the roads with a free driving course. The North Herts & South Beds Group of RoSPA Advanced Drivers Association are offering, on a first come basis, free tuition and a free advanced driver test to the 17-24 year old age group.

Several of the volunteer members of the local RoSPA branch met with Stephen McPartland, Member of Parliament for Stevenage, to discuss how the course can help to improve driver skills and road safety amongst younger drivers.

Stephen McPartland MP said, "Keeping all drivers on the road safe is a very important issue and sadly we witness collisions on almost a daily basis in our area. Unfortunately, many younger drivers are involved in those accidents and I am keen to work with our local RoSPA group to help reduce those accidents, some of which are fatal, in this vulnerable age group."

If you are interested in finding out more about the free course offer then please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

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Stephen McPartland, Member of Parliament for Stevenage, said, "I am trying to persuade the Treasury that we need to do more to help those families on low incomes that will suffer as a result of the cuts to Tax Credits. I was one of two Conservative Members of Parliament who voted against the original legislation to impose the cuts (more details here and here). Many more of my colleagues are now speaking out and even more are raising the issue in private with Treasury Ministers.

"Their defence at the moment is focused on considering the overall impact of the cuts in Tax Credits with the positive measures put forward in the budget. Such as free childcare for 3 and 4 year olds, increasing personal tax allowances and reducing confusion in the system."I will be the first to agree that the Tax Credit system needs to be reformed. It costs over £30 billion a year and almost everyone finds the system confusing and over £1 billion a year is lost in fraud. However, we have to reform it in a fairer way and mitigate the effect it has on those families with the lowest incomes.

"For example, if you are a Teaching Assistant earning around £11,000 a year, then you could face a cut of £1,200 just from the change in the Tax Credits income threshold from £6,420 down to £3,850. If you do not have a child aged 3 or 4 then you will not benefit from the free childcare policy and increases in the personal tax allowance over £11,000 will not be any benefit, as you will not earn enough.

"We must mitigate the overall impact on these families and I am positive we will be able to achieve a result if we can keep the pressure up. Labour has left these families behind and we should be reaching out to them, because they get up and go to work instead of opting for an easier life. These are the families who do so many of the most important jobs in our society, which are taken for granted. I will keep speaking out and have joined MP's from all parties to call for a debate next Thursday with the title:

'That this House asks the Government to reconsider the impact on the lowest paid workers of its proposed changes to tax credits, due to take effect in April 2016, and to bring forward mitigation proposals to the House.'"

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Stephen McPartland, Member of Parliament for Stevenage, debated the government plans to make cuts to tax credits on the BBC's Daily Politics saying the plan was "punishing people who get up and got out to work, and are trying to work their way out of poverty."

Stephen McPartland MP together with the Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary were speaking on Daily Politics, view the clip:

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Stephen McPartland MP for Stevenage has joined the fight against breast cancer by taking part in Breast Now’s flagship campaign, wear it pink.

Stephen McPartland MP said, "Every year in the UK around 50,000 women are diagnosed with breast cancer, and sadly nearly 12,000 women and 80 men still lose their lives to the disease. We can all help support Breast Cancer Now’s cutting-edge research, to save and improve lives, and give people quicker diagnoses and more effective treatments.

"If you are holding an event in support of wear it pink day just let me know as I have agreed to attend as many locally as I can.”

wear it pink is on Friday 23rd October. Anyone can take part, whether in school, at work or at home. All you have to do is wear something pink and donate whatever you can.Breast Cancer Now is the UK’s largest breast cancer charity, created by the merger of Breast Cancer Campaign and Breakthrough Breast Cancer.

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