There’s a demonstration outside parliament as Helena Dollimore talks to Rye News. The noise interrupting the conversation is just another example of how life for the new MP for Hastings and Rye is full on, with people constantly vying for her attention. “There’s a lot of juggling. A lot of squeezing as much as possible into the time available.” The long to-do list also now includes writing a monthly column for Rye News, which will begin soon.
Ten thousand requests for help have come into the MP’s offices since her election last year. “It’s a reflection of how our public services are on their knees after fourteen years of the last government, I’m in the lucky position that I get things looked into, but there are a lot of vulnerable people not getting the support they need.”
Her new team, based at Westminster and in the constituency, are kept busy with complicated cases. “Families who desperately need help from the housing department. People waiting for too long for cancer treatment. Pensioners not receiving their pensions – we helped one man get a £75,000 back payment after not getting his pension for years. People trapped overseas. It’s a huge responsibility but it’s also a huge honour to help people and to represent Hastings and Rye.”
The challenges also include getting to grips with how government works. “The House of Commons chamber is a lot smaller than it looks on TV and with the number of new Labour MPs it’s absolutely packed. Something I didn’t expect was how long it can take to get to speak in the chamber. You’re constantly bobbing up and down trying to get attention. I’m also very conscious you’ve only got ten to fifteen seconds before the speaker will interrupt you and cut you off. You must be really concise.”
There are a lot of traditions and customs to understand as a new MP. “There’s so much to get your head around but I’ve raised a lot of issues in parliament and directly with government ministers. I also got elected to the Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs select committee which has focusses a lot on the issues that are very relevant to our community, like fishing, farming, the water companies, the resilience of our rural communities in places like Rye.”
Another challenge is the constituency itself. How does she balance the needs of tens of thousands of people in Hastings and just a few thousand in Rye? “Ever since I’ve been here I have referred to myself as the MP for Hastings, Rye and the villages. That’s very deliberate because I want to make sure that no corner of the constituency is ever forgotten. There’s a lot more in common across the constituency than people think – for examples access to the NHS.”
After the landslide election, poll ratings for the Labour government have collapsed. She is unfazed by criticism the government’s national agenda on farming inheritance tax, pensioners heating allowances and national insurance increases disproportionately affects a rural town like Rye with a significantly older population. “There were specific measures in the budget to protect small businesses. If you employ four or five people on the national living wage full time you pay less National Insurance because we’ve raised the employment allowance from £5,000 to £10,000. We are reforming business rates to make it a fairer balance between our brilliant high street, often independent, businesses in Rye and those huge online giants like Amazon who don’t pay business rates in the same way. It’s really important that we rebalance that and make that a level playing field.
“Obviously, none of us came into politics to take the decision that we did on the winter fuel allowance. It was a decision we were forced to make because of the dire inheritance the conservatives left us but also to make sure we were investing the money that our NHS so desperately needs. I’ve run cost of living events in Rye and in Hastings to help people understand the support that is available to them. It’s the same with the farm inheritance tax. I’ve talked to local farmers and I fully support them but again it comes down to the worst inheritance of any government coming into office.”
Helena Dollimore holds regular surgeries in Rye and in the next few weeks will be starting a regular column in Rye News. “I’m really looking forward to keeping in touch with the readers on the issues that I’m working on in parliament at a national level. I’ll also be putting local issues into the spotlight that might not be getting the attention that they need.”
Rye News will be approaching representatives from the other political parties locally for comments and opinion pieces.
Image Credits: Chris Lawson , Helena Dollimore .
Politics is all about priorities…sadly Labour chose the wrong ones.
When canvassing for people’s votes, did Ms Dollimore not take into consideration the amount of work that would be involved should she be elected? Apparently, our last government left irreparable damage – which we already knew – and surely the new MP’s duty is to prioritise her own constituents and their dire circumstances, doing whatever she can to help those in need most, eg State Pensioners who have had their Winter Fuel Allowance withdrawn and Child Poverty?
Enough already moaning about the previous government – move forward FGS! As a cancer patient on the basic state pernsion I am dismayed by Labour’s cancellation of my winter heating allowance for a start, and Labour’s overall economic performance to date.
10’000 request for help
I’m not surprised you get thousands of request for help. Look what you have done to the pensioners winter fuel payments. Blaming it on the 22 billion black hole left by the previous government yet spending billions on overseas aid like Afghanistan Pakistan India and even China. Billions for over seas climate aid. Why? What about the UK people? This is not the Labour Party I once knew. Where as it all gone wrong?
The two major water outages that left the constituents of Hastings and Rye without water occurred within 9 months of each other (September/October 2023 and May 2024). Both of these events happened before Ms Dollimore was elected.
Ms Dollimore has successfully pushed Southern water on compensation for her Hastings constituents. For their 5 day water outage residents of Hastings are receiving nearly twice the rate of compensation that the residents in Rye and surrounding areas who were without water for 9 days were given.
I would simply like to see Ms Dollimore demonstrate with actions and results that she fights as hard for her constituents outside of Hastings.
Can’t comment because the recent boundary change placed Udimore outside Ms Dollimore’s constituency. Feel sad each time “Hastings, Rye & the villages” is mentioned. We can walk to Rye from here, but are now outliers in Bexhill & Battle constituency.
Can we campaign/propose to change the boundary?
Personally I think Helen Dollimore is a hard working MP for the Hastings and Rye Constituency, just sad the party that she represents, that are doing very little to have any confidence in them,over the next 4 years.
Could we not try and get behind Helena rather than continue constantly moaning about what isn’t being done and the past (to be honest when a new government comes in there is often talk about what the previous government didn’t do which I do find disappointing). However without getting political I am not a labour voter BUT this young woman ‘certainly has the bit between her teeth’ and appears to be out and about within the community listening which surely is a start and I hope that positive changes can be made for our community and the country as a whole in the future.
Some people seem to forget the Labour of old and the complete mess they left, lets hope history doesn’t repeat it’s self.
It already has!
The ‘Village People’ Group in Fairlight are very grateful that Helena came to visit the controversial former Market Garden Housing Development on Lower Waites Lane. She’s written to Rother Planning Team amplifying resident concerns, asking for a Survey, before the Site gets signed off. Perhaps a future article on planning?
It was gratifying to see Helena taking Southern Water to task at Select Committee, and to the extent that this expedited overdue compensation for businesses in Hastings, she should be congratulated. Well done.
I think Helena’s government has, alas, performed a good deal less adeptly with regards SMEs in the UK, which make up 85% of our businesses. Having talked the economy down before and after the election, saddling business (and the care sector) with increased Employer NI and lower thresholds at the Budget seems quite astonishingly poor timing, as we skirt the edges of recession. Yes, there are new allowances, and ongoing tinkering with Business Rates, but the Holy Grail of growth is driven as much if not more so by consumer and business confidence, and Labour have done little to inspire that. Yes, Helena and her Govt were absolutely right to point to the poison economic chalice they inherited from the Conservatives, but after seven months, I suspect I’m not the only one for whom the ‘Bart Simpson Defence’ is wearing thin. “It wasn’t me” is true in many respects, but people are impatient for change not just reset and relaunch. Yes, change takes time, but it can be expedited with bolder political choices. The LibDems fought on a manifesto which included incremental and pragmatic restoration of European trade ties, raising funds from banks and billionaires, and scrapping the two child benefit cap. However, thus far Labour’s fear of Reform stifles any real progress with Europe, and it’s been pensioners, farmers and small-businesses that have faced the Government shakedown whilst Non-Doms get more latitude for tax-planning and the two child cap continues to lock children into poverty.
It’s sad that such a clearly hard-working MP is determined to repeat the party line of “tough choices” that have to be made in the face of the deficit left by the previous government. The fact is, those choices only ever seem to be tough for the poorest and most vulnerable (pensioners, the disabled) and never for the rich. If we had a 2% wealth tax on those with assets over 10 million, we could pay off the deficit and still have 2 billion to spend. The choices only ever seem to be tough for the poor. This party promised change, but we get more of the same (and many are left worse off). The country is on its knees. We need real change.