05 Changing of the guard


Solidarity Consulting’s Michael Calderbank looks forward to the new Parliamentary term


t’s been all change at Westminster aſter Labour’s landslide election victory in July. Of the 650 MPs, more than half (335) were elected for the first time and, sadly, that has meant goodbye to several members of the cross-party NUJ Parliamentary Group. It will inevitably take time to become familiar with all the new faces but work has commenced in seeking to identify potential allies of the NUJ. Following discussions with the officers, vice- chair Rebecca Long- Bailey, whose Salford constituency


I


includes Media City, will step up to chair the Parliamentary Group in the new Parliament, with John McDonnell continuing as secretary and vice-chairs from other parties to be appointed. Lisa Nandy is the new Culture


Secretary but continuity is provided by the appointment of Stephanie Peacock as media minister, having served as shadow prior to the


election. A meeting with the new minister will take place when MPs return from their party conferences. Jamie Stone has been made the Lib Dem culture spokesperson in the Commons, but a permanent appointment to the role of shadow Culture Media and Sport (CMS) secretary will take place aſter the Conservative leadership election. At the time of writing, the full membership of the influential CMS select commitee has yet to be determined, but Conservative MP, Caroline Dinenage, is expected to continue in the role as chair. Te King’s


Speech outlining the government’s


programme for this session contained


few measures specifically


relating to journalism and the media, although the Employment Rights Bill will be important for workers in this sector and many others. Significantly, Labour’s New Deal for Working


People promised to repeal recent Tory anti-union legislation, offer day-one employment rights, end fire-and- rehire, and move to scrap zero hours contracts. A Private Members Bill on SLAPPs


was lost in the fraught “wash- up” period following the election announcement so the group will work hard to ensure legislation to curb the use of litigation to censor the press and intimidate journalists reaches the statute book. Te Media Bill was rushed through and ensures prominence of public service broadcasters’ (PSBs) channels on smart TVs and other devices and requires video-on-demand services such as Netflix to be covered by the Ofcom content code. However, the NUJ believes more should be done to protect PSBs and the group will be pressing the Culture Secretary to ensure greater funding for the BBC, particularly aſter the corporation’s latest announcement of more than 100 job cuts. Disappointingly, there has been no specific commitment on the regulation of Artificial Intelligence technology in the production of news and to protect content creators. Te Parliamentary Group will continue to brief MPs on these threats and other key issues of concern to journalists across the UK and Ireland.


POLITICS


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