Last weekend I was privileged to be invited to Glossop North End for the unveiling of a blue plaque to recognise the club’s long history, including being the smallest town to ever have a team play in the old First Division. Like clubs up and down the country, Glossop North End is so closely interwoven with the community and history of the town that supports them.
Sadly, football and many of the clubs in this country have lost that connection. With ticket prices becoming unaffordable, kits forever changing and the very existence of clubs in their local communities being put at risk through administration or grounds being sold off.
I experienced this with my own club, Derby County, as it entered administration four years ago. Back then I was part of a group of Derby fans calling for greater fan engagement in how our club was run. Sadly, Derby County’s struggles are just one example amongst many including Bury, Blackpool, Charlton and Reading. It is tragic that the game in this country has never been richer but more and more clubs are teetering on extinction. Football clubs are regularly threatened by fraudsters and owners who run clubs in their own interests and not that of the fans and the communities they truly belong to.
That is why I was so proud to be part of a group of MPs that helped steer the Football Governance Bill through Parliament. It’s long overdue and I’m delighted to have played my part in getting it over the line.
This Bill introduces a minimum standard of fan engagement, so we won’t see instances of clubs being dragged away from the communities they call home, or we won’t see a club’s branding or identify be changed without fan input. The Bill will also introduce the Independent Football Regulator, alongside a club licensing regime, these measures will help ensure a more consistent approach in how clubs are run, and finances are monitored.
This Bill will help clubs across the football pyramid, levelling up the game from the grassroots to the Premier League. We are very lucky to have some great non-league teams locally and with the new football season just around corner I’d like to wish Buxton FC, Glossop North End AFC and New Mills FC every success. We can but dream that one of them will emulate Glossop North End’s incredible achievement in 1899/1900. Maybe that journey starts this season so please do go out and support them all this season. It’s a great day out!
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Watching my father disappear into Alzheimer’s is something my family will never forget. It is a story that, sadly, will feel painfully familiar to so many families across High Peak.
People often say that with Alzheimer’s and dementia you lose the person twice. First, as the illness slowly robs them of the person they once were, and then again when their body finally gives up after a long and cruel battle.
As heartbreaking as that is, it is often accompanied by another burden: the constant worry about how to provide the care they need, and how that care will be paid for.
For decades, social care has been the problem every politician acknowledges but no government has truly solved. Almost everyone agrees the system is broken. Yet whenever serious reform is proposed, the debate quickly descends into scare stories, political point-scoring and accusations of “death taxes”, leaving families exactly where they started.
That has to change.
Last week, Andy Burnham said he was prepared to spend political capital on fixing social care and to work with other political parties to build the consensus needed to make lasting reform possible.
I know this is deeply personal for Andy. His own father is living with Alzheimer’s. But long before that, as Health Secretary, he argued that social care should be valued alongside healthcare as an essential part of the system, not treated as an afterthought.
For too long, social care has been the forgotten partner of the NHS.
When we think about our health service, we rightly picture doctors, nurses and hospitals. But social care is every bit as vital. It helps older people remain independent, supports disabled adults to live fulfilling lives, gives families reassurance, and frees up hospital beds by helping people return home safely when they are ready.
When social care fails, the NHS feels the consequences. Hospital beds stay occupied, ambulance queues grow longer, families are left exhausted, and vulnerable people do not receive the support they deserve.
Years of underinvestment have left providers struggling to survive, care workers undervalued despite the extraordinary job they do, and families facing impossible choices at the most difficult moments of their lives.
Getting social care right is not simply about one public service. It is about making our entire health and care system work better.
Andy has instructed that the review of social care should report much sooner, with conclusions expected by this time next year. That gives us a real opportunity to have the honest, grown-up conversation the country has avoided for far too long.
As your MP, I will work with anyone - whatever their political party - who is serious about delivering the lasting reforms families deserve.
My father’s journey with Alzheimer’s will stay with me forever. It reinforced something I have always believed: every one of us deserves to grow old with dignity. Every family deserves the confidence that, when the time comes, good care will be there without fear, uncertainty or impossible financial decisions.
We’ve talked about fixing social care for long enough. It’s time we finally did it.
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