The Transport Secretary, following the rise of Parliament, has made it known that he will scrap the electrification of the TransPennine route. York passengers would have gained from the electrification project which would have improved journey times to Leeds, Huddersfield, Manchester and Liverpool and as a result increased capacity on the trains which are frequently overcrowded.

Rachael Maskell MP for York Central is supporting a campaign run by charity The Reading Agency to encourage all primary school children to take part in this year’s Summer Reading Challenge, which launches across England and Wales on Saturday 15^th July.

To mark the starting date of the summer-long project, Rachael will be donating several books to York’s city centre library York Explore on Saturday morning. The Summer Reading Challenge, a unique partnership between The Reading Agency and public libraries across the UK, last year got over 729,000 children borrowing, reading and talking about their favourite books.

Rachael Maskell MP for York Central joined the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) yesterday in Westminster to demand the Government introduces a full ban on the ivory trade.

Following the recent announcement about the closure of Burgins Perfumary, a business which has been trading in York for 137 years, Rachael Maskell challenged the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Philip Hammond, to say when he will begin an urgent consultation on business rates to help traders in York.  In his Spring Budget the Chancellor promised that “a new preferred approach to business rates” would be consulted on but this has not happened.