Diplomatic relations between countries can be a bit complicated. That has certainly been the case recently arising from two things the American President has said. The first has been his attempt to ‘buy’ Greenland and saying that he would put tariffs on those countries that didn’t agree with him, including the UK.
The people of Greenland, unsurprisingly, are of the view that it is for them to decide their future and not a different country. Britain, along with other European states has been very clear in standing up for the Greenlanders’ right to self-determination and in saying that using tariffs in this way is wrong, and it seems, for the time being, that the threat has receded.
The second example was the comment by President Trump suggesting that British forces had stayed “a little off the frontlines” in Afghanistan. The Prime Minister couldn’t have been clearer in his response to this criticism of the bravery of our armed forces. He described the comments as “insulting and frankly appalling” and those who served in Afghanistan were equally angry. When I was the International Development Secretary, I went out to Camp Bastion in Helmand where British soldiers had taken over from the Americans. Our troops in the forward operating bases in the province suffered heavy casualties as they took on the Taliban, and over 400 members of our Armed Forces lost their lives in the service of their country in Afghanistan.
Following a wave of criticism, as we now know, President Trump then sought to praise our soldiers. But it was the first impression that counted.
I recently visited the Printworks campus of Leeds City College to meet some apprentices and talk to them and the staff. Whenever I go there, the place is bustling with activity. In the motor vehicle department, I spoke to some level 3 apprentices who are working four days a week as mechanics in local garages and gaining their qualification on a Friday at the college. They were confident, knew exactly what they were doing and explained to me what they were checking for as they examined a car on the ramp. The other group I spoke to were level 1 apprentices who were learning about panel beating and vehicle repair.
In order to try and give students the experience of driving a range of vehicles and trucks, the college has recently acquired a simulator which, with a bank of computer screens and a seat that tilts up and down, is quite realistic. While I managed to safely ‘drive’ a digger around the virtual building site, the same couldn’t quite be said for my experience with a police van on a bit of highway. The less said about that the better, apart from the fact that repairing the virtual van might well fall to the level 1 apprentices! My efforts did however make a lot of people laugh and, in my defence, I’ve never been any good at computer games.
A number of homes in Holbeck are set to receive upgrades through a major scheme that is about to get underway, as part of the first phase of the new Heart of Holbeck regeneration programme.
The housing renewal contract has been awarded to a sustainable regeneration company called Equans and improvements will be made to at least 180 homes which are a mix of Leeds City Council, owner occupied and private rented properties.
The improvements will include new insulation for external walls and the installation of new roofs, windows and doors. This will be following the approach taken in phases one and two of the housing regeneration work in Holbeck that started almost a decade ago.
The improvements are part of a wider £15.9m Local Regeneration Fund grant, which we all worked very hard to get, to support proposals from the original Neighbourhood Improvement Plan. The other schemes will see investment in the St Matthew’s community centre and major improvements to the local centre infrastructure and green spaces. These schemes are due to start coming forward later this year.
And finally, we’ve heard two important pieces of sports news recently.
The first is that the Women’s Tour de France will be coming to Leeds next year. On 30 July 2027 the women’s cycle race will get underway from the Headrow, which is where the Grand Départ of the men’s race began in 2014. Like many people – I have never seen the centre of Leeds so full – I was there on that memorable occasion, and the atmosphere was extraordinary.
This will also see Leeds making history as the first place outside mainland Europe to host the start of a Grand Départ for both the men’s and women’s events.
The second bit of good news is that the Elland Road expansion plan has now been granted planning approval. This will see the ground become the seventh largest English football stadium, as it increases its capacity from 37,645 seats to about 53,000. This will be very welcome news to the 26,000 people who are currently on a waiting list for a season ticket.
The project will transform Elland Road into a UEFA Category 4 stadium, while enabling the club, alongside civic partners, to bid to host major international tournaments in the future,
On the challenge of dealing with increased matchday traffic, the club has a travel plan which I’ve talked to them about, and the planning application was overwhelmingly supported by Leeds City Council. The stadium expansion project is the first step towards the wider regeneration of the Elland Road neighbourhood.
The design of the new stands looks very impressive and we all look forward to the work getting underway.
Hilary Benn is our Member of Parliament. He represents the Leeds South constituency.
Email: hilary.benn.mp@parliament.uk | Website: www.hilarybennmp.com
Constituency office:
Unity Business Centre, 26 Roundhay Road, Leeds, LS7 1AB
Tel: 0113 244 1097
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