Jeff Ennis MP

MoD Contract

2004-09-08T18:23:00.000+01:00

A decision on whether a Barnsley company has secured a £1.4 billion contract for a fleet of new Army vehicles is due any day. Mercedes Benz is one of four short-listed bidders for the Ministry of Defence contract which could create more than 1,000 jobs. A successful bid would result in the Tankersley plant manufacturing more than 1,000 cargo vehicles and tankers a year.

Barnsley MPs Eric Illsley, Jeff Ennis and Michael Clapham teamed up with Richard Nutter from the Barnsley Development Agency to lobby government ministers to convince the to award the contract to Mercedes.

From a local perspective, a successful bid would be a major shot in the arm to an area still trying to recover from the privations of the miners strike 20 years ago, which decimated employment.

Russian Speakers' Visit

2004-09-08T17:22:00.000+01:00

Members of the Barnsley Russian Speaking community group have met with the town's three MPs. The group travelled to the Houses of Parliament along with other ethnic community groups from Barnsley to meet with Eric Illsley, Jeff Ennis and Mick Clapham. Next year the group is planning a delegation to Donetsk in the Ukraine to strengthen cultural and economic ties with the area.

Playing Fields Support

2004-09-08T15:45:00.000+01:00

Barnsley MP Jeff Ennis has supported a government scheme to protect school playing fields. Mr Ennis said the new rules means the sale of playing fields must now be an absolute last resort and that, if a sale is allowed, the money must go on new outdoor facilities.

He said School fields are the training grounds for tomorrow's Olympic athletes and national sporting stars. We can't guarantee future success without protecting our kid's sports pitches and facilities.

Iraq

2004-08-06T11:38:00.000+01:00

When it came to the votes on Iraq, Jeff tended to follow the government line, voting with the government on divisions 97, 117 and 118 and only voting against the government on 96.

Subsequently Jeff expressed concerns at how developments in Iraq had worked out:

The resolution I voted for in March tied the invasion of Iraq with the road map for peace in the Middle East, which has come off the rails since then. I am feeling very pessimistic.

Jeff was a signatory to the Early Day Motion that read:

That this House does not believe that British forces should be required to participate in a war against Iraq unless all of the following conditions are met (a) that there is clear evidence that Iraq poses an imminent threat to peace, (b) that there is a substantive motion of this House authorising military action, (c) that there is an express resolution of the Security Council of the United Nations authorising the use of military force against Iraq and (d) that all other policy options have been exhausted.

However, whilst criticising the Americans for the mess they have made in Iraq, Jeff has yet to state whether he now feels he was wrong to support the government.

Welcome

2004-08-05T17:02:00.000+01:00

This blog is being maintained on behalf of Jeff Ennis, Labour MP for Barnsley East and Mexborough. Jeff has a website maintained by those very nice people over at ePolitix.com, which not only contains his biography, but also details of various Bills and EDMs he has voted on, along with press releases and speeches.

It is apparent, both from speaking to his constituents and reading articles in the press that Jeff holds strong opinions on both politics and society which do not appear on the ePolitix website. If this blog proves to be beneficial to both Jeff and the people he represents then hopefully it will be taken over by his contituency party.