By Chancellor of the Exchequer and Leeds West & Pudsey MP Rachel Reeves
I am delighted to be continuing my regular column in the West Leeds Dispatch, and welcome readers who are new to my constituency which now includes Pudsey, Calverley and Farsley.
For over 14 years I have proudly served communities of West Leeds in Parliament, and following the general election in July I am incredibly grateful to continue to do so.
Community spirit feels particularly pronounced at this time of year. In November the nation comes together to honour the fallen, communities pay tribute to those who have served in our Armed Forces.
Across Leeds West and Pudsey we are deeply proud of our Armed Forces personnel, veterans, and the families who support them. Theirs truly is the ultimate public service, and it was an honour to commemorate this by laying a wreath at the Bramley War Memorial.
Remembrance is a timely reminder of how joining together as a community creates a powerful force, a shared sense of belonging in a time of collective reflection.
Now, as the countdown to Christmas gets under way, community spirit continues across all corners of West Leeds, such as the magic of the Christmas lights switch on in Farsley earlier this week.
And all year around, from our incredible community organisations across the constituency from Bramley Elderly Action to the Interplay Theatre, in our local park runs, and our local charities doing vital work such as Pudsey Community Project and Barca to name a few, it is plain to see that the strong sense of community is thriving across my constituency.
The strength of our communities and the people of Leeds West and Pudsey I have the privilege to represent were very much on my mind when delivering the Budget to Parliament in October.
I have made it clear I will not take for granted the people who send me to Parliament; it is my mission as your Chancellor and your local MP to deliver the change this Government promised, so that my constituents benefit from restored stability to our public finances, an NHS back on its feet and a Britain renewed.
While serving as Chancellor, I am very much still at your service as a constituency MP. If you are a constituent and there is something you think I and my office will be able to help with then please do get in touch via rachel.reeves.mp@parliament.uk or 0113 255 2311.
For as long as I am your MP I will be a local champion for our communities and a national voice for Leeds West and Pudsey in Westminster.
Thr damage you have caused since being made chancellor and the biggest joke ever in the uk and its obviously on the uk who put you there…absolute idiots, I can sincerely say on behalf of most of the uk who would agree, who certainly do not want you in this position as chancellor and for you to whole heartedly resign, just like your master starmer Bulley and manipulator and side kick angela rayner who no one actual likes but only belothes the three of you along with mayer Khan..do yourself a honourable and only thing left to do, RESIGN with dignity..
Your opinions are not on behalf of most of the UK, they are your own opinions. Also you have not backed up any of your statements with facts.
The whole country needs to be behind Anthony’s way of thinking, and the majority of them are you delusional. He doesn’t need to back up anything with facts, it’s all out in the open for anyone to plainly see. People like you Dave, are part of the problem. How on God’s green earth can you defend this absolute disgrace of a party and this absolute waste of oxygen of a chancellor
The whole country can make it’s own mind up and be behind whatever they like to be behind.
Also, do you have any facts to back up your argument Craig, disgrace is a strong word.
the leaders of this government are a disgrace to our country and especially our own people.it seems there are not enough knives for you to stab us in the back with.the ordinary people who gave their lives to make this uk a free and decent land will be turning in their graves at how you are turning on us all.show some humility and reverse the terrible decisions you have made.
Keith Lemon?
Could you clarify if there will.be more tax rises on businesses as last week you said
“I’m not coming back with more borrowing or more taxes.”
But your business secretary and PM didn’t seem so convinced?
Please build a new hopsital in leeds, it will help millions across the county.
You are crashing the UK economy, you day there’s no alternatives so here’s some
Remove import duty loopholes for low value goods coming from china (temu, shein, wish etc)
Increase VAT on multinationals that don’t declare profits here and extract wealth out of the UK.
Increase withholding tax
Impose tariffs on imported goods which compete against our own home grown industries
Increase capital gains on profits on extremely high value properties
Increase taxes in gambling
Reduce MPs expenses why is a 2nd home required what’s wrong with hotels like everyone else?
Reduce MPs and civil servants
Bring in experienced business people to run efficiency projects in the public sector
Or just ruin our economy
I run a business employing over 100 people in West Leeds. The budget is a complete disaster as it increases.my costs but not the costs of my non UK competition based in tax havens.
Your budget increases my overheads by 10%, I can’t afford to be less competitive or I will have to let staff go. To remain competitive I will invest in automation and outsource my customer services. My overheads will be back to where they need to be and there will be 13 UK jobs lost.
If there’s less growth or there’s.more.unemployment the tax measures bring less in. Did you stress test ypur figures and take into account companies might change their behaviour?
More hollow words from a hollow party, it took 48 hours for the last lie to be exposed wonder how long these will last. Writing cheques they can’t cash from the top down
keep up the good work in parliament and keep those taps running, let the people of this country suffer your financial ignorance
I’m an ex constituent of Reeves, though as a socialist, the parent and grandparent of disabled people and a pensioner, I’ve always found her very hard to vote for.
I will say she keeps her promises; one of her earliest speeches in parliament was about how she planned to attack the poorest and most vulnerable and by god she’s done that.
She could have taxed the richest in society; her colleagues could have stopped funding overseas wars and genocides but her preference is to hit the most vulnerable.
On top of that she’s encouraged anti-Semitic expulsions of Jewish LP members who are anti-zionist and/or socialist. She and Starmer have presided over the expulsion of more Jewish members than all the other LP leaders out together.
No one with any kind of a conscience should vote for her
I think that it’s high time that she is served with a Recall Notice. The only economics that Rachael Reeves understands is when it comes to the truth!
What a joke, Rachel Reeves giving us her e-mail address to contact her with problems etc! Since the boundary changes and us in the Pudsey area now having her as an M.P, i have written to her numerous times by e-mail and mostly never had a reply. Certainly no personal reply.
At least i used to get replies from our previous M.P, even though i often didn’t agree with him. However Ms Reeves
appears to think that because she’s a minister she’s no need to bother with her local constituents.
The Pudsey area voted for her, you might not have done. Cabinet ministers have an office of staff to ensure they can still support their constituency, the same would have applied for your previous MP.
This is basic councillor work and a puff piece to make fools like you fall head over heels for an inept administration.
Eveything mentioned in the letter above has been organised by normal people in the community, the Member is trying to claim credit and piggyback off the community, pretending they organised it, and in the process invalidating the good work the community in Leeds does on christmas lights, rememberance, and setting up clubs & sports & community events.
Think about it for half a second – clearly an MP will be a worse constituency advocate if they are a cabinet minister, especially a Chancellor.
Instead of focusing on local issues, due to the job they is really more to do on a national level. Having a cabinet member for an MP means local constituency issues are missed.
It benefits the local constituency having a senior member of parliament representing them.
You would be naive to think that there is not adequate support in place for these individuals. MP’s have been cabinet members for many years.
How someone who is able to completely con the country can sit on any financial seat let alone be chancellor is beyond me..I would suggest you resign and hide away for a long time..you have killed the business world in the UK and the elderly population with your inhuman and idiotic plans for so called fiscal growth..resign and show courage ..leave and go back to number crunching in a bank till role..
Keep up the good work an ignore the haters.
What good work?
Recovering the economy and redistributing the wealth. Things can’t change overnight, you need to give people time.
Raise your expectations, you’re literaly just saying bs propoganda.
Are they paying you to brown nose that hard?
I just like to read behind the headlines, get the full picture and consider all the facts with an open mind.
Please just resign and do everyone a favour You are most corrupt lying government ever Just go and let Reform take over
Factually incorrect
I am writing about Rachel Reeves MP. The article she wrote in West Leeds Dispatch claims she will never take constituents for granted. However, I take serious issue with that as she has not responded to any of my emails I have sent to her, and I understand a lot of other constituents have not had replies either.
This lack of response to legitimate concerns constituents have is disrespectful and disappointing.
If Rachel Revees wants to demonstrate her commitment to her constituents a basic but good way to do this is to reply to them.
Mike Bush LS285PW