Toby Perkins’ message to local people after the news earlier that Chesterfield will move to the High Covid alert level from midnight on Friday.

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Toby Perkins’ statement on Coronavirus testing

I have been inundated from people extremely anxious because they have not been able to get a test either here at the local testing centre in Chesterfield or anywhere else nearby. As children have gone back to school and many people have returned to their normal work environment away from…

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Blog: Colleges are at the heart of their communities – and need to be supported through this crisis

There are 244 colleges in England (including sixth forms), educating over 2.2 million people last year. Their students include young people straight out of school, adult learners returning to education to improve their skills or swap career, students hoping to progress on to higher education and over quarter of a…

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Back to School Survey

On Thursday 28th May the Prime Minister announced that the conditions the Government had set for a partial reopening of schools had been met and children in reception, Years 1 and 6 would return to school on the 1st June with some secondary school students returning from 25th June. Despite…

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Statement: Solidarity with the Black Lives Matters protestors

The killing of George Floyd in the USA and the brutality of the reaction from the police towards mainly peaceful protesters has highlighted structural racism, injustice and inequality affecting black people in the USA and other countries right across the world. The Black Lives Matters protestors have my full solidarity…

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BLOG: Testing is a key tool in the fight against Coronavirus

One of the greatest areas of concern and one of the key tools in our nation’s fight with Coronavirus is the need to hugely ramp up our access to testing and implement a tracing regime that quickly notifies and isolates people who have been exposed to the virus. In February,…

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Statement from Toby Perkins, Concerning Suspension of Apprenticeship Start Statistics

Toby Perkins MP, Shadow Minister for Apprenticeships and Lifelong Learning has promised to raise industry concerns about the Department for Education’s plan to stop the monthly publication of apprenticeship starts. Department for Education Officials have announced that they will stop publishing their monthly apprenticeship starts figures from May until further…

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24 hours in an MPs office during COVID19

24 hours in an MPs office during COVID19 The Coronavirus crisis has raised a huge number of issues for different constituents of mine and I am beyond grateful at how hard my staff are working to support Chesterfield people during this crisis. I am spending a great deal of time…

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Recent update from Chesterfield Royal Hospital

I am speaking regularly with Angie Smithson the Chief Executive of Chesterfield Royal Hospital, and am writing this to provide an update on the local Coronavirus situation from a health perspective. When I spoke to Angie Smithson six days ago we had 11 Coronavirus cases in the Royal Hospital, there…

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Essential Work

One of the biggest areas of ambiguity is the whole question of what is essential and who should remain at home. In the Prime Minister’s announcement on Monday, attending work was one of the exemptions he listed, but he said that people should only attend work if you cannot work…

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Coronavirus update

Its been a quite incredible week in Politics, and for the whole country. Just over a week ago, the Chancellor had announced a budget with £30 Billion set aside for Coronavirus mitigation measures and Government were still content for 50,000 people to attend the same Football match. But following an…

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Toby Perkins responds to possible closure of Chesterfield care home

Update 21.01.20 – Toby has arranged a meeting at The Spinney Care home for Friday 24th January. He will be meeting with Tanya Henson, Service Director at Derbyshire County Council, and management from the care home.   Derbyshire County Council have announced plans which could the closure of seven care…

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Toby Perkins’ Article in the February 2020 edition of Twist Magazine

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Toby Perkins: Why I’m backing Keir Starmer for Labour Leader

As I stood in my front room just before the exit poll on election night, moments before heading out to the count, I feared the worst. After six weeks of spending all hours campaigning – talking to people all across Chesterfield – it was clear to me that many people…

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BLOG: Concerns about Hasland Hall Community School

There has been considerable concern recently following the news that staff at Hasland Hall School had gone on strike in protest at behaviour and disciplinary standards at the school. I was already pursuing and responding to complaints from parents and staff concerning the school’s approach to Special Needs education and…

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BLOG: Why we need to reclassify synthetic cannabinoids as Class A drugs

Just over four years ago, I led a Westminster Hall debate on government policy on legal highs following a number of problems in our town centre. I worked with a number of organisations and with MPs across the House and legal highs were eventually banned completely in Early 2016.  I…

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BLOG: Toby Perkins MP shares his thoughts as Chesterfield commemorates the Centenary of the end of the Great War

This year sees the centenary of the end of the Great War and has renewed our focus on the sacrifice that was made by so many millions of men then, and which are still made today by those that serve in our Armed Forces. Remembrance Sunday in Chesterfield has grown…

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Statement from Toby Perkins MP regarding plans to create a subsidiary company at Chesterfield Royal Hospital

There has been much comment about the fact that Chesterfield Royal Hospital appear to be continuing with plans to create a subsidiary company and transfer 800 staff into it despite a Government announcement that all new plans should be paused. I have recently spoken to Lee Outhwaite, Finance Director at…

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BLOG: Breaking the taboo around suicide is vital to people getting help

September 10th was World Suicide Prevention Day (WSPD) . Not the cheeriest subject to be writing about, but nonetheless it references one of the most crucial issues facing the country and one which we must talk about to break the taboo. The statistics are becoming as familiar as they are…

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BLOG: Chesterfield Pride 2018 suggests we are making good progress here, and our society is all the better for it

This year’s Chesterfield Pride was the biggest and best yet, with over 4,000 people estimated to have attended the event at Stand Road this year, making it one of the fastest growing Pride events in the country. If you were lucky enough to be there you would have enjoyed music,…

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GUEST BLOG: Stan Tomkinson, student at Dronfield Henry Fanshawe School, asks the question ‘Grammar schools, do we need them?’

Earlier this year, the Conservative party announced their plans to spend an added £50million on grammar schools. This raised the very important question of whether we should still have grammar schools. The concept of grammar schools has been around since the 16th century, with the more recent concept of having…

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