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Reposted by Val Hudson

Mary Kelly Foy MP @marykfoymp.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

⚖️ Specialist Courts Announcement 👩🏻‍⚖️ Always great to receive a message like this from a government department, particularly acknowledging that my advocacy played a pivotal part in securing this vital support. More 👇🏼.

Hi Mary, how are you? Hope its been a good start back.
I wanted to give you an early heads-up about an announcement we're making on tomorrow
(embargoed till then), as youve been such an advocate in this area.
We're announcing a £23m package of measures to improve the experience of victims in rape and serious sexual offence cases, including the rollout of specialist RASSO courtrooms. Fulfilling our manifesto commitment!

The package includes:

⚖️ A specialist RASSO courtroom in every Crown Court location by 2028, with trauma-informed court staff, better access to special measures, and a consistent best-practice approach across sexual offence trials.

💷 Investment in court buildings to improve the experience for victims, including separate entrances for victims and defendants, upgraded witness and waiting areas, and private spaces for victims to meet family, supporters or lawyers.

👩🏻‍⚖️ A new taskforce, chaired by the Lord Chancellor, to tackle delays and improve the progression of rape cases through the criminal justice system.

❤️ A pilot of a dedicated single point of contact for victims at court, helping people navigate the process alongside existing specialist support services.

I’m so pleased that I could play such an key role in keeping this issue high on the government’s agenda, so that victims of rape and serious sexual offences are able to access the support, and importantly - see the justice they so truly deserve. 🫶🏼

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Reposted by Val Hudson

Mary Kelly Foy MP @marykfoymp.bsky.social · 05/06/2026

What a fab morning at St Leonard’s chatting to staff, students & of course to see the new build. You may remember a small thing called the RAAC crisis? Leonard’s was one of the worst impacted schools in the country & I was pleased to work with the school community to assist in anyway that I could.

Mary with the team at St Leonard’s School

Mary with the Leonard’s team on the roof of the school

Mary with David and Vicky inside the school

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Mary Kelly Foy MP @marykfoymp.bsky.social · 23/03/2026

Anti-social behaviour complaints are a big part of my inbox and have been on the increase for a while. I was pleased to raise the issue and some of the key areas in which constituents have raised it with me during Home Office questions today. More 👇🏻

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Reposted by Val Hudson

Mary Kelly Foy MP @marykfoymp.bsky.social · 17/02/2026

There's never a quiet week in my office so here's a taster of some recent wins we've had on behalf of constituents. Sometimes the small things can make a huge difference to someone, their family or a group of residents. If you ever need support please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

CASEWORK WINS LAST WEEK!
Education
Nursery place secured following issue with Government Gateway Code
ReclaimingCosts
Supported constituent in claiming back wrongly incurred costs from the RAC
Council Tax Waived
Supported critically ill constituent with their claim to have Council Tax charges waived
Health
Hospital Trust reviewing parking arrangements following widespread complaints from patients
Family Housed
Expedited move for family with a disabled child following a long-running dispute with Valuation Office Agency
Believe Housing
Repairs carried out after constituent highlighted issues with vermin
Lighting Repair
Lighting column repaired for residents following their lengthy complaint with local authority
DWP
Intervened to get State Pension in place for constituent following delays

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Reposted by Val Hudson

Mary Kelly Foy MP @marykfoymp.bsky.social · 18/01/2026

CITY OF DURHAM SEND ROUNDTABLE. More info👇🏻 Calling teachers, services and families of SEND children and young people in the City of Durham constituency. Next Thurs 22 January at 18:15, I’m holding a roundtable meeting to hear direct from families and teachers who have to navigate the SEND system.

These discussions will inform a submission to the Department for Education ahead of the release of the SEND White Paper.

I felt it was incredibly important to include the lived experiences of people in my constituency, so please get in touch if you’re interested in attending and contributing to the conversation.

The venue and full agenda will be released next week to everyone who has confirmed their attendance. Please note, spaces are limited so I can only admit people based in my constituency.

Contact Mary.Foy.mp@parliament.uk with your name, full address and whether you’re a family member, education provider or other organisation to express interest in attending.

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Reposted by Val Hudson

Mary Kelly Foy MP @marykfoymp.bsky.social · 06/12/2025

🥁 SMALL BUSINESS OF THE YEAR 2025 - WINNER 🏆 I’m thrilled to announce the winner of this year’s Small Business of the Year award is -The Weigh to Shop in Framwellgate Moor! 👏🏻 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 More 👇🏻

Some of the goods in jars available to be bought

The Weigh to Shop is a waste free shop, full of alternatives to plastic, the products are absolutely top quality, and there is an amazing coffee shop as well.

James, Sarah and the team are so welcoming and passionate about making shopping more sustainable, it’s very clear to see how they had huge support in this competition.

Next time you are in Framwellgate Moor (or even if you have to make a special trip) get yourself along!

A wonderful business and worthy winners of this award.

Congratulations to every single business that was nominated, I’ll be doing shout outs for each one in the run up to Christmas so we can all enjoy shopping small and shopping local! 🛍️🎄

#smallbusinesssaturday
#smallbusinesssaturdayuk
#shopsmallshoplocal

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Val Hudson @valhud.bsky.social · 17/11/2025

Agree 100%Peter. All so wrong Goodness knows what people like Alf Dobbs think about it all

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Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 17/11/2025

Keir Starmer + Shabana Mahmood propose that reintroducing Priti Patel's 2022 asylum reforms (with small tweaks) can significantly deter Channel Crossings 2022-24 shows temporary status won't deliver control re "pull factors" Having controlled routes at scale + closing unauthorised routes could

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Reposted by Val Hudson

Adam Bienkov @adambienkov.bsky.social · 17/11/2025

“We welcome migrants, we don’t scapegoat them". How Keir Starmer promised Labour MPs and members he would lead his party on immigration

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Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 17/11/2025

The Home Secretary says "we have become the destination of choice in Europe, clearly visible to every people smuggler and would-be illegal migrant across the world" That is a factually untrue claim: the Home Office shows that the UK is fifth, getting 1/10 claims, while Germany gets 1/5 claims

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Peter Jukes @peterjukes.bsky.social · 17/11/2025

I see that Mahmood, McSweeney and Glasman (who admires Steve Bannon) are continuing to merry go round of cruelty depicted on our current front page

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Val Hudson @valhud.bsky.social · 01/11/2025

As keep the faith Peter, we do #safc

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Reposted by Val Hudson

Jonathan Portes @jdportes.bsky.social · 08/10/2025

I wrote about Robert Jenrick's embrace of blood and soil nationalism for @bylinetimes.bsky.social "The British right is adopting an increasingly extreme form of ethnic identity politics, while failing to explain what the rest of us are supposed to be worried about" bylinetimes.com/2025/08/19/r...

But what about “ethnic change”? Yes, the proportion of Islington’s population who are (like me) white British has dropped from perhaps 85% to about 40%. This change is indeed visible. For West, it is “far beyond what any group would find tolerable.” What he doesn’t and can’t say is why exactly I’m supposed to find it intolerable. Why should I, or my neighbours, be more concerned about what race or ethnicity the kids are at the local school than the quality or financing of local services, or whether the council is successfully balancing the need for more housing with the interests of long-standing residents?

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Val Hudson @valhud.bsky.social · 08/10/2025

Cutting more public services no doubt, it’s like the Reform Council in Durham who find services already cut to the bone, These populist?politicians have no idea about how democracy works

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Reposted by Val Hudson

Frances Ryan @francesryan.bsky.social · 08/10/2025

This is devastating but hard to think of more important journalism. 18,457 children have been killed in Gaza (many more not accounted for). Here, The Guardian prints their names and beautiful faces and tells us what they were like before Israel stole their lives. www.theguardian.com/world/ng-int...

theguardian.com

Young lives cut short on an unimaginable scale: the 18,457 children on Gaza’s list of war dead

Every name on a list compiled by health authorities in Gaza of the child victims of Israel’s offensive

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Reposted by Val Hudson

Peter Cook: Brexorcist in Chief: Reboot Britain @brexitrage.bsky.social · 21/09/2025

We need a national conversation about a better Britain. I began in Somerset, but it needs to spread. See brexitrage.com/a-better-bri... Brexit is Farage's achilles' heel. We must move the Overton Window back into place. See our YouTube film on the matter. #Brexit #FarageRiots #RejoinEU

brexitrage.com

A Better Britain - Reboot Britain : Rejoin EU

I propose a nationwide series of town hall type events and a campaign combining some speakers and experts with the crucial element of actually listening to the lived experience of those who would norm...

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Reposted by Val Hudson

G Elliott Morris @gelliottmorris.com · 20/09/2025

currently at record-high search interest for canceling disney plus. pulling kimmel is a bigger deal to the company's bottom line than any of the "woke" scandals of the past 5 years. i think news & entertainment corp execs need put more work into understanding their audience, & get off twitter

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Val Hudson @valhud.bsky.social · 21/09/2025

I’m with Kinnock. Does anyone remember small boats bring a crisis before Brexit?

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Val Hudson @valhud.bsky.social · 15/09/2025

Couldn’t agree more Let’s hope the UK government follows her lead

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Reposted by Val Hudson

Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 14/09/2025

I think Musk's comments to a rally of 100k people are the highest profile advocacy of political violence in the UK since the end of the Northern Ireland conflict. Does anybody have a counter-example? "Whether you choose violence or not, violence is coming to you. You either fight back or you die."

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Val Hudson @valhud.bsky.social · 04/09/2025

This man RFK Jr is the biggest threat to public health in my lifetime Please you good Americans who know this , continue to show how dangerous he is RFK Jr and Democrats spar in tense hearing about chaos at federal health agencies and vaccines – live updates

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Val Hudson @valhud.bsky.social · 20/08/2025

The perpetrator of this horrendous act should be behind bars

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Reposted by Val Hudson

Zoe Gardner @zoejardiniere.bsky.social · 20/08/2025

Day in, day out, I speak to ordinary people who are organising to welcome the asylum seekers accommodated in their towns. They befriend, support them, reach out to them as fellow human beings. That's the Britain I know, the one I see around me & we never get told about on TV.

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Val Hudson @valhud.bsky.social · 18/08/2025

Stand with #Ukraine🇺🇦

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Val Hudson @valhud.bsky.social · 18/08/2025

This Trump me me me rhetoric is beyond disgusting Zelenskyy is wise to keep his cool but he must be so p****d off

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Brian Groom @groomb.bsky.social · 18/08/2025

Morecambe FC fans' relief as club sale finalised. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

bbc.co.uk

Morecambe fans' relief as club sale to Panjab Warriors completed

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Pete Buttigieg @petebuttigieg.bsky.social · 12/06/2025

Today they have crossed a deep red line. We, the people, must hold the president and his appointees accountable for this outrageous abuse against American liberty.

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Sam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · 12/06/2025

The thing that drives me mad about the health spending debate is it totally *why* budgets are rising everywhere. It's a *good thing* that health spending takes up an ever larger proportion of GDP. It's what we should *want* to spend money on!

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Adam Bienkov @adambienkov.bsky.social · 11/06/2025

"We are the party of fiscal responsibility" says Mel Stride, whose party famously triggered a bond market meltdown which crashed the UK economy and plunged the pound to its lowest ever level against the dollar

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Reform Party UK Exposed @reformexposed.bsky.social · 31/05/2025

Nigel Farage's maths skills were questioned after newly release figures on diversity, equality and inclusion programmes suggest the Reform UK leader's costings don't add up www.mirror.co.uk/news/politic...

mirror.co.uk

Nigel Farage savaged with brutal comment over his maths skills

Nigel Farage's maths skills were questioned after newly release figures on diversity, equality and inclusion programmes suggest the Reform UK leader's costings don't add up

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Val Hudson @valhud.bsky.social · 24/05/2025

Well tonight I am part of one very happy family .Well done .#SAFC

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Val Hudson @valhud.bsky.social · 23/05/2025

@profbambra.bsky.social excellent #r4today interview between you and Nick Robinson Hope our County Durham Reform council will listen and take heed

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Val Hudson @valhud.bsky.social · 21/05/2025

Within one hour of finishing a bizzare annual meeting Durham’s Reform Council had removed the Ukraine flag and replaced with St George’s

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Val Hudson @valhud.bsky.social · 20/05/2025

Exactly Leaders must be teachers and lead the country in the best evidence based direction.

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Jonathan Portes @jdportes.bsky.social · 20/05/2025

My colleague @mgerver.bsky.social has created this open letter to Keir Starmer opposing the measures announced in last week's Immigration White Paper, on economic, political and moral grounds. Open to all academics/researchers to sign. molliegerver.weebly.com/petition.html

molliegerver.weebly.com

Petition

An Open Letter to Keir Starmer We, the undersigned, strongly advise against the proposed changes to the UK immigration system of May 12, 2025, and your associated rhetoric. We are UK-based academics.....

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Adam Bienkov @adambienkov.bsky.social · 19/05/2025

For all the blanket coverage it's getting today you wouldn't know that fishing contributes a grand total of 0.03% to the UK's economy, or that it is absolutely dwarfed by many other sectors, like the live music industry, which have been badly hit by Brexit but are rarely even mentioned

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Barack Obama @barackobama.bsky.social · 19/05/2025

Michelle and I are thinking of the entire Biden family. Nobody has done more to find breakthrough treatments for cancer in all its forms than Joe, and I am certain he will fight this challenge with his trademark resolve and grace. We pray for a fast and full recovery.

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Val Hudson @valhud.bsky.social · 19/05/2025

I don’t think he’s on here but I would like to thank Nick Thomas-Symons for helping us to get a better deal for everyone in our deal with the #EU today

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