This year has seen the UK go through many changes in Parliment, and during the 2024 Election, Labour win by a landslide.
Led by Sir Keir Starmer, the Labour Party beat out thier Conservative counterparts for the first time since 2010.
Bournemouth's Student Union hosted MP Spotlight for UK Parliment Week, with key speakers Tom Hayes (Bournemouth East), Jessica Toale (Bournemouth West), and Neil Duncan-Jordan (Poole).
Last year saw the Labour MP's campaign for the two main constituents; now, as elected MP's they return to the spotlight to talk about how lives for BCP residents and students can improve.
Questions had been prepared by the Student Union ahead of the talk based on reserach conducted with data from students.
Over the past years, at BU we have seen a 49% decline of students on year-long placements, this is partly due to lack of suitable opportunities in the local area. A large proportions of graduates are moving away from the area after graduation in search of higher paid and better quality jobs, leading to loss of talent in Bournemouth.
What is being done to encourage students in staying in Bournemouth and the local area after they graduation? How do you plan to improve job prospects for current students and recent graduates in Bournemouth?
Jessica Toale said: "Part of what's missing is that the council hasn't set out what needs to be done.
"If you ask people what Bournemouth is famous for, no one could tell you."
She went on to talk about trying to "stimulate" business activity, speaking on the newly opened Patch Gallery in Bobby's, and the plans for the old House of Fraser building which had been abandoned after its shut down for years.
Neil Duncan-Jordan said: "Legal and General [owners of Poole's Dolphin Shopping Centre] took a gamble.
"And most of those business survived."
He added that there is a need for more creativity to revitalise the towns.
Questions from the floor asked the local MP's about empty buildings across Landsdowne, BU cutting back on its Humanitarian degress (Politics degree cancellation for 2025), and on work experience for young people ages 11-18.
The second theme was on crimes/violence against women.
Whilst Crime rates in Bournemouth are generally lower than compared to dense central city areas, like Bristol, there are over 220 crimes reported on average per month. A third of crime is linked to sexual offences and more prevalent in Bournemouth then in other areas.
Regarding safety in Bournemouth, particularly for women, what specific measures are you proposing?
Tom, who previously worked in a domestic abuse charity said: "The odus is on men to sort their stuff out."
He proposed to address the issue by ensuring abusers, whether they were aware of their actions as abuse or not, would undergo counseling.
It would be for those who are low to mid risk of becoming longterm abusers.
"We do have a committment as a government to half male violence against women," said Jessica.
"We've been very specific about how we want to do that.
"By making sure that police have specialist training, that there are rape units within police stations, and theres specialist training for domestic abuse from 999 calls."
Neil spoke about ensuring education about being safe is being taught in schools.
Question 3 on health and NHS.
The state of the student mental health is alarming: 85% of under grad students report experiencing mental health symptoms and the number of students disclosing mental health condition has increased seven-fold over the last decade. The consequences of this range from poor academic performance and dropping out to self-harm and suicide.
There are concerns about the availability, waiting times and quality of mental health services locally. What are your plans to tackle these issues?
"The previous government were shocking when it came to the NHS," said Neil, first addressing the prevelant issues with healthcare in UK.
"They starved it.
"And yes there are mistakes and problems but I think they are small compared tot he excellence of the NHS," he added.
"We set out some quite clear pathways and reforms," said Jessica.
"In the budget, it was the biggest cashboost in 10 years into the NHS that we announced.
"You can see from the eraly action that this month for the first time since February, the waiting list went down."
Our General questions spoke about the on-going cost-of-living crises.
97% of our students said that they were worried about the rising living costs. SUBU provided evidence to the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Students inquiry on the Cost-of-Living Crisis and were the first SU that opened a community kitchen. This has been among our most popular initiatives for students.
What steps are you taking to address the rising costs of living, university tuition fees and devaluating maintenance loans?
"I know we touched on a lot of the issues that have come up in the questions, but I think what they reveal most to me is just how broken bits of our services are," Jessica said.
All MPs notes that changes to the economy and public services would take time.
For any issues students would like to discuss with them, they are happy to hear concerns.