Joe Robertson has been appointed as a Shadow Minister for Work and Pensions in an Opposition reshuffle, becoming the first sitting Isle of Wight MP in 20 years to take up a government or opposition frontbench role.
The Conservative MP’s new position will see him focus on areas including welfare reform, employment and government spending.
Announcing his appointment today (Wednesday), Mr Robertson said he would use his new position to hold the Government to account in Parliament while also helping to develop Conservative policy.
He has identified getting people back into work and reducing overall welfare spending as priorities, arguing that the Government has struggled to deliver much-needed post-Covid reform of the country’s welfare system.
Mr Robertson’s appointment is a rare occurrence for an Isle of Wight MP, with no sitting Island representative having served on a government or opposition frontbench for 20 years.
The last was Andrew Turner, who served as a Shadow Cabinet Office Minister with responsibility for charities between May 2005 and June 2006.
Only a small number of Isle of Wight MPs have held comparable positions over the years.
During the Victorian era, Evelyn Ashley and Sir Richard Webster occupied senior government posts, while John Seely later reached the Cabinet as Secretary of State for War.
Liberal MPs Stephen Ross and Dr Peter Brand also served as opposition spokesmen, covering portfolios including local government, transport, Northern Ireland and health.
Sharing news of his appointment on Facebook, Joe Robertson has said:
“The Government has been struggling to deliver much-needed post-Covid reform of our welfare system, which must include helping people back into work and reducing overall welfare spending.
“The Prime Minister said yesterday that spending needs to come down but gave no details about how he would do it over 2 years on from the General Election.
“I will use my new role to hold the Government to account in Parliament and also develop new policy in this area – something I have already been doing with the Centre for Social Justice think tank alongside Liz Earle and Angela Rippon.”
Oh good. He can spend even less time solving the challenges faced by constituents in Isle of Wight East.
My thoughts exactly, he won’t be seen on the island
often, he will be too busy hanging around Westminster.
No, but that’s how the parliamentary system works.
Any better ideas?
Well done Joe, but it won’t help the island.
Well at least Joe will be very well informed IF he has mixed with the lower classes whilst living here should he have watched and listened to working class people living on estates.
For they know the amount of benefit and welfare fraud, biggest problem is getting any such people to speak about it, for most are either doing such in some way themselves or have close family members involved in faking mental illness, lying to to get disability, PiPs, pretending to be ‘single’ to up the benefits, whilst having a live in lover, working for cash in nail bars, hair dressing, massage establishment, cleaners, food industry etc etc..
Firstly PiPs should be ended. IF you are sick then with free meds, no need to give more money. You if at home have less costs than those needing travel money for work, and charity shops are full of jerseys if heating the one room is too costly
Same with parents with sen kids, they don’t need more money, just need parents to give them more time, put the phone down and try to educate what you bought into the world yourselves.
Many social housing tenants use drugs as an income which is never declared, either growing or dealing with it. Wightbay often has growing tents for sale and if Joe considers that many of these people get heavily subsidised rent, c tax, free prescriptions, child allowance, generous payments on universal credits just for burdening society with another mouth to feed, attempt to educate and eventually house to start the whole cycle all over again, then he will soon SEE why many of these beings choose NOT to work, for they also have all the time off to enjoy life, on the beach in Summer and at home subsidised heating buying takeaway meals and trips to the FREE for them heights etc in winter.
Sadly I expect Joe, who seems a decent guy, will spend all his time with Bembridge well to do people, and know nothing about the real number swindling benefits or how they do, and to Joe and the wealthy, the amounts that they live on and spend on one meal makes the sums these cretins swindle seems tiny, BUT there are millions doing so, and it creates ill feeling from those who work and end up living on less that the swindlers, Hence I am writing this.
Was bad enough when it was just our own doing so, but since mobile phones has made the darkest regions of the globe accessible to free info on how to get to the UK, what to say to claim asylum and what not to say, the numbers are crippling the system.
Whilst the top wealthy will always be immune the middle classes are going to be living in a most unpleasant country as Burnham spreads the chancers far and wide. As we now see with housing estates, they have to put in a few social housing, hoping that the influence of those buying will impact on those sponging, sadly just brings down the whole area.
Let’s hope Joe can find time to listen to working class people living amongst non working class spongers to hear, and take on board the REAL goings on, not just Gov stats which are flawed as only those caught ‘show up’ there are millions swindling the system.
Excellent response Ivy. I hope he follows in the steps of Stephen Ross; greatest MP this Island ever had.
The ‘lower classes’ and ‘most working people on estates are committing benefit fraud’ The state of this idiot here.
I have many questions.
If PIP payments are stopped will there suddenly be a whole team of volunteers to cook, wash and shop for the long term sick or should there just be left to die alone? Who’s going to trawl the charity should for the extra jersey for the bedridden?
How can things like autism ( a neurological and development disorder) with an SEN diagnosis be ‘educated’ out please? What about deafness, speech disorders, blindness, cystic fibrosis….read extra books and do a course?
Should the multitude of doctors and specialists it takes to diagnosis conditions in order to create a report to give to the benefits deciders be stuck off for ‘lying? What might be their motive for lying on behalf of total strangers?
How many ‘millions’ are benefits fraudsters? Out of how many claimants?
It would be a little like assuming every person is on drugs, but only the ones who crash are caught. Again, how would YOU know?
Assumptions. I’d guess from sitting at home, all alone, old, no job, no pension with nothing but spite and bitterness to keep you ticking over. If you’ve always looked out on the world as SUCH it’s really no wonder. What one imagines becomes their reality. It’s called neuroplasticity, or in your case, rigidity.
You’d have to either be very low IQ or be totally dishonest to not see the layer of useless filth that has built up below the working class, entire generations of obese losers who justify a parasitic lifestyle by the results of said lifestyle (being a fat stupid loser does not in fact entitle you to tax payer money to fund it). I know plenty of people who are supposedly autistic or ‘neurodivergent’ who work as hard as anyone else, this isn’t an excuse for anything. At the end of the day, sick, healthy, smart, dumb, anyone should be complely ashamed to take money for nothing, especially from those who have actually bothered to earn it.
One cannot generalise and cut off an entire funding stream for a group of people and class them all as ‘filth’ and presume they don’t work because they won’t. Not only is that very stupid it’s also downright nasty, entitled and privileged. Not a good look in any human being. Certainly not a younger one yet to get round the corner of life and bump into unforeseen aliments and disabilities which may cause a need for help.
But….do I see an attitude shift in younger generations? Yes I do. And it wasn’t caused by the benefits system and so won’t be fixed by it’s removal.
It’s a sociological question with some surprising findings and as ever, the previous generations inadvertently caused it. And then, it appears, criticise them while shrugging off any blame……
Not as if they’ve got loads of them to choose from. Got the job out of necessity not talent, in fact the PM handed his arse to him at his maiden speech on Tuesday.
Congratulations Mr Robertson and good luck!
If you can get the personal allowance raised so that people on state pensions are not hammered for tax that would be really appreciated.
If you can also do something for the island’s 10,000 WASPI women and their families who were promised a small amount of compensation that would be the icing on the cake!
The WASPI’S have been let down bit like the sub post masters.
Pensioners should be looked after they have done their bit,
now is time for the nippers to do their bit.
We have become a lazy nation
Get cracking Joe. You’re going to be the busiest man on the planet, if you stand by what you say. The amount of bone idol scroungers in the street where I used to live, was escalating quicker than mushrooms grow. There are two lads mid 20s who walk around with their tanned six packs on show, so are clearly fit, yet have never done a days work. Couple that with the unfit mothers who have been previously investigated by social services, now able to claim more money for extra kids, so have started producing more. Not forgetting the ever growing mainland drug dealing family’s, who’s kids are special needs because the poor defenceless sods were weened on drugs, before milk. Lastly but by no means least, the couple who are only disabled if asked. Walk outside & can wash & polling his car no problem. Go into the town for some shopping, now that requires a stick. I would imagine if the handouts on that street alone was tallied up, kids, school taxis’s, free houses, reduced council tax, free prescriptions & anything else they have thrown at them over a year. It would be a huge amount, & that is only one relatively short street.
Maybe if you spent less time snooping on the lives of your neighbours and more time looking into the multitude of health conditions classed as not requiring a person to work in various (unavailable) jobs here on the island you might find your answer.
Walking with a stick is the least of his problems. Try heart disease.
Investigated, but not prosecuted, points to nosy, tittle-tattle neighbours with no evidence as in many cases which cost the tax-payer thousands in investigating.
Special needs is not caused by parental drug dealing, or even drug taking. It’s attributed to genetic polymorphism encoded in DNA, and those codes were triggered to change several generations ago by the environment in which they lived, the foods manufactured, the paints, the pollution etc etc.
And the two shirtless lads…..how would you know or not that are not online content creators making a pretty packet out of gluing the stupid bored neighbours to the media on their phones while they twitch at their curtains?
Look we’ll make you up to a shadow minister, now shut up about the ferries, they are a nice little earner for some of use who have money invested in them.
Kemi didn’t have much to choose from tbf.