It is good to read that our newly elected MP David Drew will join Labour’s frontbench as shadow farming and rural affairs minister, and he is surely well qualified for this role.

In early June Mr. Drew was quoted as saying (on stepping down from being vice-chair of Forest Green Rovers) that he would not be as involved in the Eco Park project, and yet he is clearly advocating and campaigning for it?

Also, there is a silent and serious Brexit-induced anxiety and threat for many in his constituency who do not always feel they can speak out. I refer to the farm, service and hospitality workers, nurses and medical staff, teachers, artists and all those local citizens who have made their homes here for many years (often decades) but were born on the other side of the English Channel. Even now their rights are in doubt, and yet this is where they have made their homes.

Under the government’s current proposal, every one of the three million EU citizens in the UK will now be required to apply for a special ID card granting them right to remain. There are individuals in Stroud who have already applied (post-Brexit referendum) for permanent residency, filling out onerous 85 page documents and sending some 3kg of paperwork to the Home Office. Now it seems they must start all over, with new procedures and be fingerprinted in the process. These individuals came in good faith, with an understanding of a social contract which is now onerously broken. What can we say to these members of our community, and what will Mr. Drew and the Labour party be doing to ensure their future?

Judith Large

Stroud