Luke Pollard MP Labour & Co-op Member of Parliament for Plymouth Sutton & Devonport
It’s three years since the tragedy in Keyham. Our community lost five people that day, with two more injured and left hundreds of eye witnesses, many of them children.
Three years on I want to pay tribute to our community for coming together to help each other. pic.twitter.com/XyS0IpTyWs
— Luke Pollard MP (@LukePollard) August 12, 2024
This week marks three years since the tragedy in Keyham. As the MP for the area I want to pay tribute to the families of the victims, the survivors, our public services and our community. It may be 1000 days since the awful events but for so many in our community the pain and emotion is still raw.
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I remain firmly of the belief that we need to update our broken gun laws. Over the past three years I’ve made the case for updating our laws in Parliament. I’ve proposed Keyham’s Law, met Ministers and spoken in debates.
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Sadly, many of the changes we argued for were put in the long-grass by the last Government. This isn’t a party political post. I want people to understand why we haven’t got the changes we have argued for and the Coroner recommended in his lengthy and detailed Inquest.
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I have spoken to Yvette Cooper, the new Home Secretary, and I am due to meet with Home Office Ministers to discuss how we can unblock the changes we need. I want to make sure that no other communities goes through what we did in 2021. That means updating gun laws. I’m pleased Labour’s manifesto included some of the changes we want as a city, and I’ll keep making the case for change. I’m confident we will get there.
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Please spare a thought today for Keyham, all those affected and those who worked and work so hard today to look after each other.