Rother Valley Labour MP Jake Richards has been keen to talk about being part of a party that’s getting Britain building. He’s a proud member of the Labour Growth Group, even signed a letter to Keir Starmer last July urging him to defy NIMBYs and embrace a planning “revolution.” If only that enthusiasm extended to his own backyard…
Richards – the nepo-baby son of a former New Statesman political editor Steve Richards – has objected to every development proposal in his own constituency. Keen to keep the local NIMBY brigade onside, he’s opposed plans for hundreds of new homes in his own village, moaning on Facebook about overdevelopment, traffic, green space, and even light pollution. He declared:
“I do not support these plans and will try my utmost to protect Hellaby… the amount of traffic and noise it would cause is not acceptable.”
He also continually expressed his “concerns” over plans for a solar farm in Whitestone – despite it being a Nationally Significant Infrastructure project – and wrote to Rotherham Council objecting to a quarry project, citing the usual traffic and environmental excuses. If Starmer wants to take on the blockers he should probably start with his own backbenches…
Former Labour leader Neil Kinnock was asked if Burnham will take Britain back into the EU:
“Yes, sure – his commitment is authentic. He really does understand from the grassroots up why restoring what I think of as normality in our continent is vital for every party economically, politically, culturally, in terms of security, and he’s able to articulate it in language that people can understand. So yeah, he is definitely”.