This week, MPs have returned from the short Parliamentary recess and 117 have now signed EDM 654 supporting the RSPB campaign on birds of prey. Thank you to all our members who contacted their MPs and thank you to all the MPs who have responded.
This is an impressive total and I am sure it will grow a little more over the next few weeks (unless rumours of a March General Election come to pass!). EDMs provide a way for issues to be publicised within Parliament and for MPs to show their support for them. 117 is a good total even though there are 644 MPs in all. Some MPs just don't ever sign EDMs and Cabinet members and most Shadow Ministers do not bother to sign them either. Any EDM which reaches 100 signatories can be regarded as having been very well supported. In fact EDM 654 is about the 50th most signed EDM of the current Parliamentary session out of a total of getting on for 1000 EDMs - so that is impressive. And a few more signatures would move it even higher up the list!
This is the wording of EDM 654:
That this House congratulates the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds on acquiring over 200,000 signatories to its campaign to end the illegal killing of birds of prey; recognises the depth of public support this shows for more action to be taken to protect birds of prey; further recognises the socio-economic benefits healthy bird of prey populations can bring to rural communities; notes that the shooting, poisoning and other destruction of magnificent species including hen harriers, golden eagles and peregrine falcons remains unacceptably common; acknowledges that such persecution represents a major impediment towards the recovery of such species to their historic levels; and calls on the Government to make ending the illegal killing of these iconic birds a greater priority.
The 57 MPs whose names were added this week are: Gwyn Prosser, Adrian Sanders, Andrew Selous, Dennis Skinner, Jim Hood, Michael Mates, Francis Maude, Lembit Opik, Colin Burgon, Simon Burns, Colin Challen, David TC Davies, James Gray, Diane Abbott, Paddy Tipping, Derek Twigg, Angela Watkinson, Roger Williams, Stephen Crabb, Timothy Farron, Stephen Hammond, James Plaskitt, Bob Russell, Geraldine Smith, Gerald Kaufman, Fraser Kemp, Charles Kennedy, Michael Connarty, Jim Cousins, Janet Anderson, David Jones, Parmjit Dhanda, Tom Harris, Vince Cable, Michael Fabricant, Ben Wallace, Richard Benyon, Graham Stuart, Ed Vaizey, Mark Williams, Dai Davies, Chloe Smith, Martyn Jones, Michael Moore, Doug Naysmith, David Davis, Edward Garnier, Tim Yeo, Evan Harris, Menzies Campbell, John Thurso, David Amess, John Austin, Joan Walley, Daniel Kawczynski and Greg Mulholland.
And the political breakdown of the MPs who have signed is:
Conservatives: Alistair Burt, Peter Bottomley, Andrew Rosindell, Andrew Selous, Michael Mates, Francis Maude, Simon Burns, David TC Davies, James Gray, Angela Watkinson, Stephen Crabb, Stephen Hammond, David Jones, Michael Fabricant, Ben Wallace, Richard Benyon, Graham Stuart, Ed Vaizey, Chloe Smith, David Davis, Edward Garnier, Tim Yeo, David Amess, Daniel Kawczynski (24 so far, out of a total of 193)
Democratic Unionist: David Simpson, Gregory Campbell, Jeffrey Donaldson, Nigel Dodds (4 so far, out of a total of 8)
Independent: Bob Spink, Dai Davies (2 so far, out of 8)
Labour: Angela Smith, Lindsay Hoyle, Stephen Hepburn, Joan Humble, Chris McCafferty, John McDonnell, Laura Moffatt, Ronnie Campbell, Janet Dean, Andrew Dismore, David Drew, Paul Truswell, Desmond Turner, Robert N Wareing, Brian Jenkins, Alan Meale, Edward O'Hara, Martin Caton, Jeremy Corbyn, Neil Gerrard, John Battle, Keith Vaz, David Lepper, Bill Etherington, Betty Williams, Alan Simpson, Ann Cryer, Graham Stringer, Rudi Vis, Harry Cohen, David Anderson, Lindsay Roy, Greg Pope, David Crausby, Paul Flynn, David Heyes, Anne Begg, Gwyn Prosser, Dennis Skinner, Jim Hood, Colin Burgon, Colin Challen, Diane Abbott, Paddy Tipping, Derek Twigg, James Plaskitt, Geraldine Smith, Gerald Kaufman, Fraser Kemp, Michael Connarty, Jim Cousins, Janet Anderson, Parmjit Dhanda, Tom Harris, Martyn Jones, Doug Naysmith, John Austin, Joan Walley, (58 so far, out of a total of 346)
Liberal Democrats: Norman Baker, Andrew George, Paul Holmes, Mike Hancock, Phil Willis, John Leech, John Hemming, Mark Hunter, Annette Brooke, Lorely Burt, Andrew Stunell, John Barrett, Richard Younger-Ross, Adrian Sanders, Lembit Opik, Roger Williams, Timothy Farron, Bob Russell, Charles Kennedy, Vince Cable, Mark Williams, Michael Moore, Evan Harris, Menzies Campbell, John Thurso, Greg Mulholland (26 so far, out of a total of 63)
Plaid Cymru: Hywel Williams (1 so far, out of a total of 3)
Social Democratic and Labour Party: Eddie McGrady, Mark Durkan (2 so far, out of a total of 3)
We shall be thanking MPs who have signed and trying to encourage a few more to sign up. And we'll be publicising the public and Parliamentary support for birds of preys in a variety of ways. watch this space for updates. And thank you again to all the MPs whose names are on EDM 654 - our birds of prey are magnificent and deserve greater protection from illegal persecution.
Well done Mark for orchestrating the campaign we just do the easy but essential bit when a bit of prompting is helpful.Well done to all the MPs who took the trouble to sign.