Foreign secretary focuses on constituents' homegrown concerns

Yvette Cooper is Labour MP for Normanton, Pontefract and Castleford as well as foreign secretary

How does a cabinet minister represent the UK on the global political stage as foreign secretary while also properly serving her constituents in West Yorkshire?

That is the question which now faces Yvette Cooper - the MP for Pontefract, Castleford and Knottingley - following the prime minister's recent cabinet reshuffle.

On the one hand, international affairs will, of course, be high on Cooper's agenda after having moved from her previous role as home secretary, but what are the local issues that her constituents in Castleford think she still also needs to tackle?

Diane Jackson and Neal Thompson think Castleford needs to attract more shops to the high street

Retired couple Diane Jackson and partner Neal Thompson live in Featherstone and are in Castleford to do their shopping.

They say they are dismayed at the state of the town centre despite regeneration work by the council to improve it and want to know Cooper's plans.

Neal says: "There is nothing left on the high street. Castleford seems to be struggling to attract new businesses."

Diane, 70, agrees: "There are a lot of good jobs around, lots of new private houses, but people are shopping elsewhere."

Diane and Neal's concerns are echoed by others, including Nikki and Russ Dean, who say they moved from Harrogate to Castleford because housing was more affordable in the West Yorkshire town.

Nikki, 58, who works in the care industry, and Russ, who is a kitchen installer, say their big concern is the cost of living, which is affecting their finances.

Nikki says: "Castleford is worse than most towns, other areas are not as bad.

"In two years, it feels like every shop has gone."

Nikki and Russ Dean think a cut in business rates would attract more shops

Responding, Cooper, who has represented the same constituency since 1997, says she recognises all these issues and knows they are being experienced in lots of places.

"In Castleford and across a lot of the country, we have seen town centres go backwards," she says.

"Some of that is people shopping online and, for us locally, some of it in recent years is because we had our neighbourhood policing cut.

"That meant we saw increases in crime and anti-social behaviour."

However, Cooper says neighbourhood policing in Castleford has doubled this summer, "leading to patrols every day of the week".

"There is still a strong sense of pride in Castleford, but town centres are changing and we need investment," she says.

"The other thing the government said it will do is reform business rates so you make it easier for small businesses and town centre shops to open."

Shaya and Anya are concerned about the provision of NHS dentists in Castleford and the loss of green fields for housing

Friends Shaya Karunanithy, 21, and Anya Rollin, 20, are more upbeat about Castleford.

They have just been out together painting pottery and they describe the town as a "happy place to live".

Shaya says that soon she will be heading off to Manchester University to study dentistry and her concerns centre around the lack of NHS dental provision locally.

"There needs to be more dental healthcare as people are struggling to access it and it's having knock-on effects," she says.

Meanwhile, Anya, who lives at home with her parents in Altofts, near Castleford, questions why houses locally are often built on "fields and not elsewhere".

Answering the friends' concerns, Cooper says: "Shaya is right. We need more NHS dentists.

"Over the last five to six years, especially around Covid, we saw local dentists closing their lists to NHS patients. That's caused huge problems."

Cooper says the government is putting more investment into dentistry and is "starting with about 30,000 extra emergency care appointments across West Yorkshire".

But she warns it will take a while to fix as "we need reform to dentists' contracts and the changes to the NHS more widely".

Meanwhile, responding to Anya's concerns over the location of new homes, Cooper says a lot of the recent developments in her constituency have been on old pit sites like Prince of Wales in Pontefract and the Glasshoughton pit site in Castleford.

However, Cooper agrees housing has to be "in the right places", adding: "We need more, especially for young people."

Cindy Wild would like Cooper to push the government to help pensioners more

Elsewhere in Castleford town centre, Cindy Wild and her husband Graham also have questions for Cooper.

Cindy, 71, who is recently retired but who used to work as a carer in a nursing home, says she is angry with the government over its handling of the winter fuel cuts.

She also fears she could lose her Personal Independent Payments.

Cindy has one question for Cooper: "Why are you picking on pensioners?"

In response, Cooper points to the government's decision to reinstate winter fuel payments.

She also says that changes have been made to the mineworkers' pension scheme, something which will be relevant to many of her constituents.

"We had a historic injustice where the government was taking money out of the mineworkers' pension scheme," Cooper explains.

"One of the first changes we made last year was to put more than £1bn that the government was holding back into the pension scheme.

"That's meant nearly £30 a week additional payments to a lot of retired miners."

Catherine Jones says Cooper's work as foreign secretary will take her away from her focus on Castleford

Concerns over how visible Cooper will be in her constituency while dealing with wider international affairs are clearly something which are also on local residents' minds.

Catherine Jones, who has lived in Castleford for 25 years, says she rarely sees Cooper, her local MP.

"I don't think she is very visible. We see her in Pontefract on a weekend but not down here."

However, Cooper says that tackling issues in the towns she was elected to represent remains a priority for her, despite her other obligations.

"What I've found over the last 15 months in the home secretary's job is that it has changed the work I do in Westminster, but locally the work has still carried on.

"Obviously the new job means more foreign travel because I've got to represent the UK abroad."

"What I'm just working out with them [the Foreign Office] now is making sure I can do the things I've always done here, because that's important to me and I think that is ultimately what it is all about."

Yvette Cooper met President Donald Trump on his recent state visit to the UK

Cooper adds that on her recent meeting with President Trump, it was an opportunity to promote Castleford internationally.

"I was talking to the King, talking to the president, having those international discussions about the UK's role abroad and how we get investment here at home," Cooper says.

"It is a real honour - but it also means it's a chance to talk to the US secretary of state about Castleford Tigers."

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