Press releases

Consultation on formula promotion bill

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Alison Thewliss MP sitting at her desk in Parliament

An MP campaigning to tighten up the law surrounding the marketing of formula milk has opened a consultation for consumers, campaigners and health professionals.

Alison Thewliss, SNP MP for Glasgow Central, was recently given leave of the House of Commons to bring forward her Feeding Products for Babies and Children (Advertising and Promotion) Bill. Now the MP is asking interested parties to submit thoughts and proposals for consideration before 9am on Monday 9th January 2017. After that she will move to drafting the Bill, which will be published early in the new year.

The Bill seeks to make provision for the control of advertising and promotion of feeding products for babies and children. The MP intends for the Bill to establish a body – completely independent of industry – which would regularly safety test formula milks and other infant feeding products, and potentially adjudicate on the veracity of claims made by companies as to the ingredients and nutritional value of such products. The Bill aims also to include provision for stiffer financial penalties for formula companies which publish scientifically inaccurate and misleading claims.

Those interested in responding to the consultation are asked to fill out a short consultation form.

Commenting, Alison Thewliss MP said:

“I have been overwhelmed by the support and good wishes of so many people who have a wealth of knowledge around infant feeding. I would encourage as many people as possible to visit my website, fill out the consultation form, and let me know their thoughts as to what might potentially be helpful to include in the Bill.

“Taking a Ten Minute Rule Bill all the way through to being put on the statute books is a tall order, so I am keen to give the Bill the best possible chance of success. I am conscious that if the Bill is drafted sensibly and pragmatic enough, then there’s every chance that the Government might consider adopting it.”

Rape clause minister resigns

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Alison Thewliss MP joins supporters at the launch of her campaign to scrap the rape clause

Alison Thewliss MP has welcomed news that the Welfare Minister, Lord Freud, is resigning from the Government.

The Tory Peer, who was handed the welfare reform brief by David Cameron in 2010, has signalled his intention to leave the Government at the end of the month. The SNP MP welcomed this development, saying that Lord Freud was “without doubt one of coldest, heartless and most ignorant politicians” she had ever met.

The un-elected Tory Peer had been tasked with driving the Government’s welfare cuts programme, which includes limiting tax credits to two children per family and a rape clause whereby women who would have to prove their third or subsequent child was born as a result of rape.

Thewliss and Freud clashed earlier in the year during a meeting at the DWP’s headquarters in Caxton House, London. Following the meeting, the Glasgow Central MP condemned Freud’s remark that women who are subject to domestic and sexual abuse should “just flee” their situations.

Commenting on Freud’s resignation announcement, SNP MP Alison Thewliss said:

“Lord Freud was without doubt one of the coldest, most heartless and ignorant politicians I’ve ever had the misfortune of dealing with in almost ten years of elected politics.

“His blatant disregard for some of the most vulnerable women in society was utterly appalling and his departure from Government is a very welcome development. His suggestion that women experiencing abuse from their intimate partner should “just flee” revealed to me how utterly out of touch he was with reality and how unfit he was to be making policy for women and children who have already been through severe trauma.

“With the Government’s rape clause consultation having just closed at the weekend, I am heartened in the knowledge that Freud will no longer be overseeing this medieval and pernicious policy agenda.

“Throughout this entire campaign, I have been of the view that any Minister with a sense of compassion or decency would understand that making women prove they were raped to receive tax credits is utterly degrading and the policy should be scrapped. Lord Freud’s departure from Government gives me a real and renewed sense of hope that this Government will now see sense and ditch this appalling proposal.”

Alison Thewliss MP joins charities and businesses to support #givingtuesday

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The global day of giving known as #givingtuesday took place on 29 November and Alison Thewliss MP was at Parliament to celebrate local charities Glasgow City Mission, Glasgow Council on Alcohol, Glasgow Women’s Aid, Lifelink, Scottish Families Affected by Alcohol & Drugs and SiMY Community Development, who are all backing the campaign.

This is the third year #givingtuesday has taken place in the UK, a campaign which encourages people to ‘do good stuff’ for charity. Over 1,500 charities and businesses have signed up as partners in the campaign including Cancer Research UK, Morrisons, Sue Ryder, Sainsbury’s, the RSPCA and the Financial Times.

In 2015 #givingtuesday broke a Guinness World Record for the most online donations in 24 hours as people gave £35 million to good causes globally.  Online donations raised £6,000 a minute for UK charities.  The event was the top trend on Twitter throughout the day with more than 100,000 mentions using the hashtag.  Celebrities and politicians including Stephen Fry, JK Rowling, Gary Lineker and Tom Daley backed the campaign.

#Givingtuesday now runs in over 70 countries including the US, Canada, Germany, Spain, Singapore, Australia, Tanzania, Russia and Ireland.  It is led in the UK by the Charities Aid Foundation, one of Europe’s largest charitable foundations which supports charities in managing their money and helps people and businesses give to good causes.  The theme for 2016 is simply to ‘do good stuff’.  Charities, businesses and individuals can sign up to be part of the event at www.givingtuesday.org.uk or connect via Facebook and Twitter.

Alison Thewliss MP said:

“I am delighted to support this year’s #givingtuesday campaign. It’s a great event and an exciting opportunity for charities and businesses in Glasgow to showcase the work they do all year round.”

Hannah Terrey, Head of Policy and Campaigns, at the Charities Aid Foundation said:

“It is fantastic to see so much enthusiasm for the #givingtuesday movement from so many amazing individuals and organisations across the country.”

“After the festive retail frenzy of Black Friday and Cyber Monday #givingtuesday is a great opportunity to give something back and we are thrilled that so many people used the day to do good stuff for charities they care about.”

Consultation closes: Government urged to listen and scrap tax credit cuts

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Alison Thewliss MP joins supporters at the launch of her campaign to scrap the rape clause

The SNP MP for Glasgow Central, Alison Thewliss, has urged the UK Government to “genuinely listen” and drop its two child policy and rape clause following “sincere and evidence based” concerns submitted in a public consultation.

After almost 450 days of ducking the issue, the UK Government last month quietly put its “medieval” rape clause and “disastrous” two child policy for tax credits out to public consultation, following a lengthy campaign by the SNP MP.

Yesterday (Sunday) saw the closing date for submissions to the consultation. Now Ms Thewliss is calling upon the Government to reflect upon how entirely unworkable a rape clause would be and how disastrous implementing a two child policy would be for family finances.

Commenting after alison-thewliss-mp-response-to-rape-clause-consultation, Alison Thewliss MP said:

“As the Government consultation on the rape clause and two child policy has now closed, I would urge policy officials and Ministers to genuinely listen to the very sincere and evidence based concerns I and many others have submitted.

“If implemented, we now know the rape clause will almost certainly mean that DWP decision makers – with little or no training – are going to be arbitrating on whether or not a woman was raped and whether or not her third or subsequent child should receive tax credits.

“Designing a policy and consultation which asks some of the most vulnerable women in society how they would like to prove they were raped must surely be one of the most insensitive, disgusting and degrading ideas ever to emanate from Whitehall.

“Research by the Resolution Foundation indicates that the two child policy will push an extra 200,000 children, the majority of whose families are already in-work, into child poverty by 2020. These are the very “just about managing” families that the Prime Minister claims to support.

“Whatever way you look at this, it’s bad policy making, it will be disastrous and the Government must use this consultation response to scrap these awful proposals now.”

Alison Thewliss MP celebrates 30 years of Childline

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To mark 30 years of Childline, the free 24-hour counselling service for children and young people, Alison Thewliss, MP for Glasgow Central, attended a special event at Portcullis House to hear from its founder, Dame Esther Rantzen.

The event took place at Portcullis House in London, on 2 November, and was hosted by Nigel Huddleston, MP for Mid Worcestershire. There were also presentations from a Childline counsellor and six NSPCC Young Ambassadors.

Dame Esther spoke about how Childline is more in demand than ever before, counselling more than 300,000 children and young people every year. She also explained that since the charity introduced online support and counselling in 2009, more than two-thirds (71%) of the counselling sessions take place online.

Childline counsellor, Michelle Turnbull, who has been volunteering for Childline for five years, gave the Peers and MPs an insight into the counselling sessions. She described the time she took a call from a young girl who was suicidal and listened and spoke to her for more than hour – they even wrote a song together. Two months later the girl called Childline back to give counsellors an update on her progress.

Ms Thewliss also got the chance to talk to children who had used Childline and understand how it changed their life.

Alison Thewliss MP said: “It was great to be a part of these special celebrations for such an important service. Childline provide an excellent service in supporting young people of all ages on a daily basis and I want to thank them for the work they do in supporting my young constituents.”

Peter Wanless, CEO of the NSPCC said: “This event at Westminster was a great way to continue Childline’s 30th birthday celebrations, with Dame Esther Rantzen as always leading the way. It was particularly moving hearing from the Childline counsellor and how she helps children and young people on a daily basis, some of whom find themselves in the most desperate of circumstances.”

During Childline’s birthday week the NSPCC released new data that reveals a 35% rise in anxiety in the past year, with 11,706 children and young people being counselled by Childline in 2015/16 compared to 8,642 in 2014/15. An increasing number of children and young people are being struck down by the problem, with causes ranging from personal and family issues to concerns about world affairs such as the EU Referendum, the US Election and troubles in the Middle East.

The charity has also announced Cheryl as their new Childline campaigner.

Alison Thewliss MP Raises Money for The Royal British Legion’s Poppy Appeal

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Yesterday (Wednesday 2 November) Glasgow Central MP Alison Thewliss, the Director General of The Royal British Legion and over 80 other Members of Parliament raced against the clock on an exercise bike to raise money for The Royal British Legion’s annual Poppy Appeal.

The 12 hour bike ride was held from 08:00 to 20:00 in Portcullis House, Parliament and aimed to raise money for the Legion’s National Poppy Appeal. Alison Thewliss represented her local constituency by cycling as far as she could in 5 minutes, with the hope of topping the leaderboard and beating last year’s winner David Davies, MP for Monmouth in South Wales, who cycled an impressive 2.46 miles in 5 minutes. Alison Thewliss managed to cycle 1.8 miles in 5 minutes.

The bike ride was organised by the Industry and Parliament Trust (IPT) in association with The Royal British Legion and follows on from the successful bike ride held in 2015 (where 77 MPs and Peers cycled a total of 128.8 miles in 12 hours).

Members of the Welsh Assembly also undertook the same challenge as the two legislatures aimed to collectively cycle the distance from Westminster to the Somme in France to mark this year’s centenary of the Battle of the Somme.

MPs were encouraged to donate as they took part, with all of the money raised on the day going to help The Royal British Legion provide lifelong support for the Armed Forces community. The Central Parliament Poppy Appeal is the only charity that can fundraise in Parliament.

Alison Thewliss, said:

“I would like to thank the Industry and Parliament Trust and The Royal British Legion for arranging this event. The Royal British Legion and Poppyscotland provide invaluable support to the Armed Forces community; I am pleased to have been able to support such a worthy cause.

Nick Maher, CEO of the IPT said:

“The work of The Royal British Legion is essential to the lives of so many families across the UK and I am delighted that Alison was able to support us in our efforts to raise money for such a worthwhile cause. The support and enthusiasm from parliamentarians this year has been fantastic.”

City MP welcomes moves for safe injecting facility

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Alison Thewliss MP sitting at her desk in Parliament

Alison Thewliss, MP for Glasgow Central, has given a cautious welcome to moves to introduce a Safe Injecting Facility (SIF) in the city.

The decision to approve the move towards a supervised injecting facility was taken today at a meeting of the Glasgow City Integration Joint Board. It follows months of consideration, research and scrutiny of the proposal by the Alcohol & Drug Partnership.

Glasgow MP, Ms Thewliss, travelled to Dublin last month to meet with officials, politicians and the Ana Liffey drug project to learn more about SIFs and how they operate. The Irish Government has already announced plans for its first safe injecting facility to open early next year.

Speaking after today’s decision was taken, Ms Thewliss said:

“The issues of discarded needles, the increase in infection rates and drug overdoses are not things people find easy to talk about. It is an uncomfortable subject and for too long it’s been an issue swept under the carpet. We cannot ignore this any longer.

“The sad fact remains that this city has a public drug injecting population of approximately five hundred people, who are extremely vulnerable. I’ve seen with my own eyes people injecting in broad day light near to my office at Glasgow Cross. Dirty needles are regularly being discarded and it’s becoming a major public health risk, not only for the Council staff clearing them away but for local people finding syringes in their closes and near their homes.

“As well as fearing for the safety of the drug injecting population, I am deeply concerned that members of the public could be injured by a discarded syringe.

“I’ve been elected now for almost a decade and can see that this is an issue which is not going away. I’ve considered this very seriously, I can really see no other option but to move towards a supervised and safe injecting facility.

“Research has shown that safe injecting facilities save lives, move drug injecting off the street and open up a vital dialogue between services and drug users. Safe injecting facilities can rapidly reduce the rate of deaths from overdose which must be at the forefront of our minds.

“We need to ask ourselves a very difficult question. If someone I cared about was injecting drugs, where would I want them to be? Would I want them to be on dirty waste ground, in a dark city centre lane or a back court all alone, or supervised in the safety of a consumption room with trained medical staff available and services to help move them away from drugs in the longer term?

“I welcome this very carefully considered step by the Integration Joint Board, believe it will improve public safety, and hope it is a first step to supporting this vulnerable population towards recovery.”

Rape clause – Government finally allows the public to have their say

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Alison Thewliss MP joins supporters at the launch of her campaign to scrap the rape clause

Campaigning MP, Alison Thewliss, has welcomed a climb down from the UK Government which has now finally relented and put its proposed two child policy and rape clause out to public consultation.

The SNP MP has been putting pressure on the Government for the last fifteen months to scrap the policy. Ms Thewliss has also consistently criticised the Government’s lack of consultation.

Ms Thewliss is now calling upon stakeholders, constituents and interested individuals to “pile in” with responses to the consultation and send a clear message to the Government that it must drop the entire policy.

Glasgow Central MP Alison Thewliss commented:

“It’s a small but significant step forward that, fifteen months after exposing this cruel policy, the Government has finally relented to pressure and gone out to public consultation.

“After dozens of exchanges with Ministers on this issue, it has been increasingly clear that this policy was dreamt up in Whitehall and not seriously thought through.

“One of the key points about getting this put out to public consultation means the Government must listen to rape crisis campaigners, women’s groups, religious organisations, and welfare charities who are crystal clear that these policies are unworkable, immoral and medieval.

“I urge all interested parties and individuals to pile in, respond to the consultation and leave this Tory Government in no doubt that their cruel rape clause and pernicious two child policy must be scrapped.”

Government’s rape clause defence “more heat than light”

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Alison Thewliss MP joins supporters at the launch of her campaign to scrap the rape clause

Campaigning MP, Alison Thewliss, has lambasted the UK Government’s failure to reassure vulnerable women and families about their proposed rape clause and two child policy.

Brandishing a Minister’s performance as “more heat than light”, Ms Thewliss vowed to plough on with her campaign to scrap the rape clause.

Despite pressing a number of serious questions to DWP Minister, Caroline Noakes, Ms Thewliss received few answers and instead got a diatribe about the need for austerity.

Commenting after the debate, the Glasgow Central MP said:

“In preparing for today’s debate, I specifically laid out key questions for the Government to answer which, unfortunately, they chose to ignore. Today we got more heat than light from the Government.

“Despite spending a significant proportion of my speech laying out concerns about the principle and operation of the two child policy and the rape clause, the Minister made no attempt whatsoever to address these issues.

“The Minister failed to take on board well founded and legitimate concerns about the Government’s third party reporting mechanism, and couldn’t give any guarantees how this would work. That is shocking when you consider the policy was announced over 400 days ago.

“The other red herring today was this same tired line that the Government will be consulting with stakeholders, but this has been incredibly limited in scope so far. Charities such as Stepchange Debt Charity, Child Poverty Action Group and Scottish Women’s Aid have all criticised the policy.

“In light of the fact that the Government is clearly unwilling to meaningfully engage – and do so publicly – on this deeply worrying policy, I will now be pushing ahead to organise a major event at Westminster which will bring together women’s welfare groups, rape crisis charities, faith communities and welfare charities. I will, of course, be inviting the Minister to address the event and listen to the very genuine concerns which still exist and could have been resolved today”.

MP Thewliss celebrates Toryglen housing development

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Toryglen’s MP, Alison Thewliss, joined Scottish Government Housing Minister Kevin Stewart MSP, local councillors Jim Scanlon & Jahangir Hanif, as well as GHA tenants in North Toryglen this week to celebrate the phase one opening of their new build housing development.

The £9.9m GHA development, built by contractors Crudens, is a mix of 66 houses and 34 flats, with 10 of the homes designed to wheelchair standard.

Future regeneration plans for North Toryglen include 49 homes for private sale and new shop units.

Commenting, Alison Thewliss MP said:

“I am absolutely thrilled that the SNP Scottish Government provided £4.6 million of grant funding to ensure this project could go ahead in my constituency. There has been great partnership working between the Scottish Government, Glasgow City Council, GHA and Wheatley Group and the private sector in Crudens. These 100 affordable, high-quality new homes have made a real difference in the community already, giving local people access to affordable, warm, modern homes.

“The contrast between Scotland and England on provision of affordable housing for social rent and for sale couldn’t be greater. The Scottish Government is working hard to turn round the toxic legacy of Margaret Thatcher’s disastrous right to buy policy, by reinvesting in social rented homes. The regeneration of Toryglen is another step forward in addressing the housing gap.

“The SNP Government is committed to delivering 50,000 more affordable homes over the course of this Parliament, backed up with investment of more than £3 billion.”