UK: Tracking contacts with MPs to endorse The Manchester Declaration

[Alison_Buckland]

Cool, thank you James for following up the cause.

[ugo]

Well done to @Lorna_Montgomery for reaching out to and getting an endorsement for the Declaration from Wera Hobhouse, MP for Bath. She is our first LibDem MP endorsing the declaration, and the party’s Environment and Climate Change spokeperson.

[james]

The latest MP to sign the Manchester Declaration is Robert Goodwill, MP for Scarborough and Whitby and the second Conservative MP to endorse the declaration! He currently sits on the Environmental Audit Committee and was one of the MPs to hear @ugo speak about the importance of repair when giving evidence to the committee back in June.

We’re grateful to our friends at the local Whitby Area Men’s Sheds for working with us to contact Mr Goodwill.

[Janet]

And another Conservative MP, this time Penny Mordaunt. Big thanks to @Clare_Seek for persisting in Portsmouth!

Now might be a good time to follow up with your MP, given this new piece in BBC:

BBC coverage of Right to Repair and repairability in the UK (and France)

Just sharing this BBC piece, citing the UK’s Lib Dems and Greens for supporting repairability ratings like France. We were dismayed to see Defra (our environment ministry) not using the word “repair” in here. And a little perplexed as to why BBC didn’t ask Labour. But it’s important we continue to see coverage and pressure on the issue. We’ll update you soon about the question of whether the UK will fully adopt existing Right to Repair directives from the EU. Both Defra and BEIS are involved. The coming weeks/months will be decisive.

[Janet]

Just another update: after the news spread widely and incorrectly that we already have the Right to Repair in the UK we’ve launched a petition for the real Right to Repair.

Now is a good time to get back in touch with your MP, whether or not they have endorsed the Manchester Declaration, and raise their awareness about our 3 demands of government:

1. Include everybody, DIY-ers and repair cafes
2. Commit to more products
3. Lower VAT on repairs

Petition: Give everyone a real right to repair

There may be a Parliamentary debate on these issues in June when the government presents the legislation for the measures it has announced. @ugo will keep us posted. Now is a great time to refresh MPs about the issue and its importance.

Here’s background if you’d like to read more.

[Janet]

I forgot to update this at the time, but this polling data should be powerful in talking with MPs.

Poll: Overwhelming Support for a Universal Right to Repair in Great Britain -...

You’ll note that Right to Repair is popular across the political spectrum. Potentially really useful: you can pull out regional and data by party affiliation from the YouGov numbers here to make a more persuasive argument with your MP.

[james]

It’s been a while, but the list of signatories of The Manchester Declaration has continued to grow.

Here’s the latest count:

64 signatory groups
20 allied groups
14 MPs endorsed

See them all here.

A huge thanks to everyone who’s already signed!

If your repair group or local MP hasn’t signed yet, it’s not too late