Josh Babarinde marks first year as Eastbourne’s MP

Today (4 July) marks one year since Josh Babarinde was elected as Eastbourne’s Lib Dem MP.

In that time, Mr Babarinde has taken up the cases of over 11,000 residents who have been experiencing homelessness, immigration issues, lack of special educational needs provision, poor access to health services, utilities and tax overcharging, awful potholes and much more to secure answers and action.

He has visited and met with over 200 business, schools, charities and campaigners to celebrate their work, offer them support, and raise their issues with government, parliament and the council.

The MP has run over 30 advice surgeries in local supermarkets, shopping centres and cafés, supporting hundreds of residents with their challenges face to face, and fielded tens of thousands of emails and letters.

Mr Babarinde’s first town-wide campaign as MP launched 5 minutes after he was elected, when he wrote to DGH bosses calling for the Midwifery Unit to reopen for births after months of closure.

After swathes of meetings, petitions, letters, media pressure and a public meeting. The unit reopened for births in September, and has been delivering babies ever since.

He also campaigned for the Government to announce funding for a rebuild of the DGH, which he hopes could pave the way for services to be protected from being lost to The Conquest in Hastings in the future.

In November, he campaigned to secure the £20 Million Towns Fund to help regenerate Eastbourne over the next decade, after the Conservatives said it would be scrapped.

He spoke up to protect the Sovereign Centre pools in Parliament, found an operator to save Meads Sports Centre from closure, and successfully forced East Sussex County Council to reverse its decision to close Milton Grange - and pushed them to rethink the closure of Linden Court.

Mr Babarinde has helped coordinate relief for major emergencies locally.

When fire broke out at Farnol House on Upperton, the MP brought charities together to set up emergency support for displaced resident

And during the major South East Water outage, he supported, arranged and ensured water collection points were set up across Eastbourne.

Just last week, the Eastbourne MP launched another campaign to restore a direct railway service to London Bridge. 

On a national level, Josh has also pushed for the Government to introduce measures to legally identify domestic abusers in legislation. His petition amassed over 50,000 signatures, and in May the Government announced plans to do just this. 

He’s spoken in Parliament 156 times in the last year (compared to our last MP who spoke just 43 times in her first year after being elected) and voted 152 times on laws.

Josh Babarinde said:

“It’s the honour of my life to be elected as the MP for our special town. To wake up everyday and have the privilege to represent the town that made me, me, is a feeling that never gets old. 

We’ve got loads more to do - whether that’s holding water bosses to account, fighting for better special needs provision, protecting disabled people from cruel benefits cuts and much more.

I want to thank local residents for their trust and support, and please get in touch if there’s anything I can support with.”