Luke Pollard MP has been granted new funding from the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA), who oversees Parliamentary costs, in light of the shooting in Keyham. The new funding will enable Luke to hire a new full time constituency support officer to help support the communities of Keyham and Ford.
Since the shooting Luke’s office has received increased requests for help from people affected by the shooting. Luke’s office has seen the number of requests for help triple since the start of the pandemic.
Commenting on the new role, Luke said:
“It has been only two months since the shooting in Keyham. I want to pay tribute to the way our community has stepped up and supported one another. I know that we will need to do more to ensure the support gets to the people who need it, as well as making the case to change the law around guns to ensure no community again ever faces what Keyham has.
“This is additional funding to support my brilliant team, and it means that I will move from being Plymouth’s cheapest MP to probably being our most expensive. Our community deserves and needs extra help and I hope that this new role will aid our recovery, help people access support and help me ensure that we get the long-term funding Keyham needs to heal.”
Working on a cross-party basis with Plymouth City Council, the NHS and the Police Luke helped secure the first tranche of funding for the community. The £1m funding boost was announced in the House of Commons in a special debate called by Luke Pollard to discuss the support Keyham needs.
Applications are open until Monday 18 October with a start date of 1 November. The new role is funded for six months by IPSA. Luke welcomes flexible working and job-share applications.
All of Luke’s staff are recruited via an open recruitment process and Luke refuses to hire family members.