Hear from our MP, Chris Heaton-Harris

I hope everyone has been enjoying the recent bank holidays and have managed to get some well-deserved rest!

I wish to begin this update with addressing the situation in Ukraine. I am absolutely appalled by the actions of President Putin- his assault on Ukraine is an unprovoked, premeditated attack against a sovereign democratic state. I support the Prime Minister in making it clear that nothing is off the table when it comes to the UK’s support for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.

The UK has sanctioned over £900 billion of global assets from banks, and sanctioned oligarchs and their families with a net worth of approximately £200 billion. During the Prime Minister’s recent meeting in Kyiv with President Volodymyr Zelensky, I was pleased to see he announced a doubling of our loan guarantee to $1 billion, on top of the £400 million of economic and humanitarian support and £350 million of military aid already provided.

As well as this, I wanted to say a huge thank you to the 70+ households across the Daventry constituency who have signed up to the Homes for Ukraine Scheme so far. Your generosity will enable many families to reach safety as quickly as possible in extremely difficult times.

I was humbled to recently meet with a Ukrainian family who has settled in Scaldwell. The family spoke about their life in Ukraine and the challenges they had endured in the final weeks before flying over to the UK. I was pleased to see the family had managed to settle in well to Scaldwell and I wish them all the best as they begin their new chapter in this beautiful part of the country.

I’m sure many of you will have exciting plans for the summer months, particularly with the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Celebrations taking place Thursday 2^nd June- Sunday 5^th June. To mark the occasion, I’ve launched a ‘Platinum Photography Competition’ for all primary school aged children across the constituency!

The theme of the competition is “what my community means to me” and is an opportunity to celebrate our beautiful countryside, significant local landmarks, community activities, and much more! The winning entry will feature on the card I send to the Queen, and I’ve asked for entries to be submitted by email to chris.heatonharris.mp@parliament.uk by Sunday 22^nd May. You can find full details of the competition here: www.heatonharris.com/PlatPhotoComp.

It might come as a surprise to you to hear I entered the East Midlands British Powerlifting Championships last week and competed in the novice class! After three tough rounds of squat, bench press and deadlift, I lifted a total of 365kg, ending up in third place in my weight category. Not bad for a beginner!

I have loved speaking to so many of you over the past few weeks, especially at my recent coffee morning at Brixworth Library. As always, my team and I are here to assist you with anything you would like to speak about so please get in touch at chris.heatonharris.mp@parliament.uk or pop by my monthly coffee morning. The next one is being held at West Haddon Village Hall on Saturday 7^th May at 11am.