'Being MP and mountain rescuer is difficult balance'

Whitehaven and Workington MP Josh MacAlister has been volunteering with Patterdale Mountain Rescue for about four years

Juggling life in Parliament with work as a mountain rescue volunteer is "difficult", says Josh MacAlister MP, but an important chance for him to help people and do something more practical. So can the Labour politician help give a voice to volunteer rescue services as part of a cross-party group, at a time when they are under strain?

MacAlister looks relaxed as we head out in a Patterdale Mountain Rescue truck from the team's Lake District base.

This is a job he has been doing for four years now, long before he became the MP for Whitehaven and Workington at last year's election.

Today we are going on a training exercise to recreate a scenario in which someone is injured on the fell.

"A lot of my job involves being indoors, doing speeches and things like that, so I wanted to do something that was a bit more practical where I could help people," he says.

Mountain rescue volunteers say call-outs across the Lake District have seen a major rise

Prior to life in politics he was a teacher, before setting up a social work charity and leading a government review of children's social care.

Since joining mountain rescue, he says there have been high points, where the team has saved someone in trouble, and much tougher experiences.

"I've been to fatalities and walked off with relatives or friends of those who've lost their lives, so there are moments where it has got a real weight to it," he says, as we make our way up the rugged Cumbrian hillside.

Support for volunteers

In the time since MacAlister joined the service, fellow volunteers say there has been a major rise in the number of incidents on the fells.

His team leader in Patterdale, Matt Cox, says the number of call-outs across the Lake District has risen to the point where it is "becoming unsustainable".

MacAlister and other MPs set up an All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Volunteer Rescue Services earlier this year, to help raise such problems at the highest levels.

Other members include Liberal Democrat MP for Westmorland and Lonsdale, Tim Farron.

MacAlister, who was recently appointed as an education minister, cannot call for policy changes himself while a member of government.

But he says the APPG will help air concerns that have previously gone unheard, not just for mountain rescue, but for other rescue charities like RNLI and cave rescue.

Mr Cox would like government support with the cost of insurance and vehicle tax, to ease the burden on volunteers who raise funds for the charities.

The government would not say whether such help would be possible, away from a budget or "fiscal event".

But a spokesperson says ministers "recognise the vital work that voluntary rescue services do" and that grants may be available to support them.

Josh MacAlister says he wants to continue volunteering for mountain rescue, despite the challenge of juggling it with his work as an MP

MacAlister and his colleagues are now crouched over a stretcher, assembling it as they would in a real-life rescue scenario.

He says balancing his political work with mountain rescue is difficult, and with a smile adds it has "potentially" got him into trouble a few times in the House of Commons.

"My phone is set up so that when a call-out comes through, it always beeps, regardless of whether my phone's on silent," he says.

But he insists he wants to continue.

"It's important to me to have some of that balance between the work as an MP and then being able to keep a foot in another part of life with mountain rescue."