I urged the Prime Minister last week to relax his and the Chancellor’s fiscal rules and to invite the wealthiest to contribute more to build UK’s defence capability.

I commended the Prime Minister for his careful diplomacy with the US President, and his warm support for Ukraine. However, he should raise the funds needed to invest in our defence from the better off. The PM previous asserted that “those with the broadest shoulders should bear the greatest burden”, and so they should. As well as encouraging a “coalition of the willing” nations to come together, he should encourage a “coalition” of wealthier taxpayers – with an opt-out for those who don’t support the defence of the UK and its allies.

When President Trump isn’t worrying about “transgender mice” he’s doing Putin’s bidding. Prime Minister Starmer has had to adopt the role of international diplomatic child-minder. He’s so far managed that well, but there’s more to do.

A local government minister gave me an “absolute commitment” last week that the government’s new long-term funding formula for councils will reflect Cornwall's real needs. That our rurality, deprivation and super-aging population will be reflected in future funding settlements. I raised concerns after the government withdrew a £6-million “Rural Services Delivery Grant”, forcing Cornwall Council to make an additional £6-million of cuts to essential services in the coming financial year, on top of many other cuts.

I had asked Minister Jim McMahon for an assurance that rural authorities like Cornwall (with our urban levels of deprivation) will receive funding to reflect need. Encouragingly the minister said: “He has our absolute commitment, we want to make sure the (revised) funding formula takes into account all the matters he stated.”

The stakes for Cornwall Council couldn’t be greater. Labour promised multi-year funding settlements to give councils long-term financial stability, so a fairer funding deal could put Cornwall on the road to recovery after years of Conservative ineptitude and austerity. But if the multi-year settlement repeats the urban bias of this year’s funding settlement, it will lock-in this unfairness, putting Cornwall Council on a path to bankruptcy.

I will keep working with my Liberal Democrat parliamentary colleagues and with Cornwall Council to press the case for a fair deal for Cornwall.

This week, amongst other things, I will press the case for improved patient discharge arrangements, promoting solutions to the dentistry desert, advocating for genuinely affordable homes for locals and to put need before greed in the planning system and to press for fair treatment for the Cornish Pirates and all tiers of rugby, as MPs come together to challenge the RFU’s bias in favour of riches for the top, to the detriment of others.

The next in my series of public meetings will take place in St Ives on the evening of Friday, March 28. Contact my office if you wish to book a place and/or be added to our notification address list.

Andrew George

Liberal Democrat MP for St Ives