Pippa Heylings MP visits Politics students
On Friday 26th September we had the pleasure of hosting the Liberal Democrat MP for South Cambridgeshire, Pippa Heylings. Pippa visited the college to meet with A Level Government and Politics students.
By way of introduction, Pippa spoke in detail about her career prior to Westminster, a career that has included teaching and voluntary work in Africa and Latin America. Following on from this, she fully engaged with questions from our students that included a variety of issues, from her views on taxing wealth to fund greater equality, why she was no longer a Green Party member, AI, indefinite leave to remain and the proposed introduction of Digital ID for UK citizens. When asked what she believed to be her most important achievement as an MP, Pippa spoke of her role as a constituency MP with specific reference to SEND in schools. In terms of party achievement to date, she is also proud of the Liberal Democrat role in declaring the current actions of the Netanyahu government a genocide. Whilst discussing this issue, Pippa told the students about her visits to Israel that included both the Kibbutzim and the site of the Nova music festival attacked by Hamas on October 7th 2023, as well as discussions with Jewish and Palestinian citizens in the occupied territories.
Whilst discussing her election to Parliament, Pippa displayed her sash from the campaign group Centenary Action, which has allocated her number 644 representing her place as the 644th woman to sit in the UK Parliament. The students also learned about Mission 2028, their aim to achieve a 50-50 equal-gendered House of Commons.
In relation to her role as her party spokesperson for Energy Security and Net Zero, Pippa also met with Emily King and John Roche, both of whom were involved with the Stickerbook activity focused on sustainability. They were able to share their experiences of the project and their prize-winning visit to CCI at the David Attenborough Building earlier in the year. Whilst meeting with these students, Pippa was given a brief tour of the trees on campus donated by the Woodland Trust as part of the College rewilding project. She also met with students with regard to campaigns to improve local bus services.
Such visits remain vital to ensure that our students grow in engagement with the political process and improve their own political literacy. Many thanks go to the students for engaging with the day, to Pippa for giving us some of her valuable time and Ginny Swepson from Pippa’s office, who helped to make the visit run smoothly.
