May has been a busy month..and is summer finally here?!

The month of May started with the local elections. Whilst being successful, they were not as successful as I had hoped, with three seats being retained by their current Councillor by less than a hundred votes. It is clear the tides are changing in Plymouth; people are voting for a positive, brighter future. Nevertheless, with turn-out at around 30%, it is clear we have a long way to go to encourage people to actually turn out on the day and vote for it.

Locally we have regrouped, and whilst I would have preferred an outright win, we do now have a Conservative Council leader to match the three Conservative Members of Parliament for Plymouth – something that has never happened before. This City’s future is brighter than our recent past; with unemployment released this month showing a drop of almost 50% since 2010, our City is changing for the better, and in serious danger of realising it’s potential.

Nationally I launched a very important report into Armed Forces Families and Transition on behalf of the Centre for Social Justice in London. I appeared on Good Morning Britain to discuss the report’s findings with Piers Morgan. We also had significant success in the Lariam report that will hopefully now see a change in the way the UK Military approaches Mental Health access to treatments and recognition.

I also:

• Held a very successful ‘Brain Drain conference in the Futures Inn -the first of a series of conferences addressing why so much talent leaves our City, and how we can improve opportunities for young people. Read the report here.
• Spoke at UBS in the City of London to mark Mental Health awareness week
• Continued my campaign to spark engagement in the EU Referendum. Have you voted? Click here. 

Enjoy the weather. Is there a better place than Plymouth when the sun shines?

Best Wishes

Johnny