Angus MacDonald MP 🔶

Graphic showing a laughing Nigel Farage - above are the words Lib Dems defeat Farage's plan to undermine our Human Rights

Liberal Democrat MPs just defeated Nigel Farage’s Bill in Parliament to tear up people’s rights and withdraw from the ECHR.

Farage wants to do away with the Britain Churchill built and turn it into Trump's America. We won't let him.

This Labour Government is just moving asylum seekers from one kind of unsuitable and costly accommodation to another, instead of tackling the real issue - speeding up asylum decisions.

Compassion must guide our approach, but so must common sense.

I’ve written to Sir Keir Starmer to ask him to table legislation to formally remove Prince Andrew’s titles. I’m pleased to have the support of 27 cross party MPs, with more expressing support in private.

My promise to the Highlands from the conference I hosted in Fort William earlier today - local care and people prioritised every step of the way The Scottish Gov have committed to forming a working ... My promise to the Highlands from the conference I hosted in Fort William earlier today - local care and people prioritised every step of the way The Scottish Gov have committed to forming a working....

My promise to the Highlands from the conference I hosted in Fort William earlier today - local care and people prioritised every step of the way

Watch here: www.facebook.com/reel/2243221...

So proud to have hosted this Care Conference in Fort William along with Kate Forbes.

We confirmed TODAY that the Scottish Gov will commit to forming a working party with local communities to push for solutions. I'm delighted to see this result - and I'll keep working every minute

Tomorrow is my Highland Care Conference, which I'm hosting with Kate Forbes.

Securing social care for our elderly in the Highlands is vital and I'm determined that tomorrow will help bring solutions.

I'll post lots of updates as tomorrow goes on.

I’ve secured a meeting with UK Ministers to tackle the deep unfairness of rural energy costs - when Highland households pay up to four times more to heat their homes than those in cities.

Communities generating clean power should benefit, instead of being penalised with higher bills.

1. Commit to leaving significant legacy housing
2. Employ a large number of local young people and establish graduate apprenticeships, working with UHI
3. Ensure that local villages, like Broadford, aren’t swamped with workers’ camps which will put pressure on local services

My demands for renewables projects across the Highlands (thread)

We must urgently ratify the High Seas Treaty. But it is only the first step towards protecting our oceans.

That's why I urged the Government to go further by banning the terrifying practice of bottom trawling in Marine Protected Areas.

The National Mòd has been a great success in Fort William, great music, good crowds and gorgeous weather. Well done James Graham, Ian Robertson and the many others who made it epic.

Earlier this week was World Mental Health Day. Speak Their Name is a memorial where anyone who has lost a loved one to suicide can create a memorial square. A very touching experience to see.

Local charities like Mikeysline or the Samaritans are always available if you need them.

300 beds lie empty, while people have to be turned away. Inpatient units are closing. We face the threat of 1/2 of children’s hospices cutting their end-of-life care or scrapping it altogether if funding is not urgently guaranteed. Hospices relieve pressure on our NHS and offer extraordinary dignity and comfort for people. Yet just ⅓ of their income comes, on average, from our NHS. Many receive substantially less because each hospice must plead for funding from their local ICB, with no national recognition of their value. Hospices suffered real cuts under the last government, and now a massive NICs raid under this one. 40% of hospices are planning cuts this year with more to come. There have been hundreds of jobs lost. Care at home services have been cut, inpatient units closed, and beds shuttered. We are calling on you to: • End the postcode lottery of hospice care by allocating funding by demand so that areas that struggle to attract charitable funding are properly supported

• Protect children’s hospices by maintaining their ringfenced funding and following the recommendations for annual uplifts. • Exempting hospices from increases in Employer NICs. • Tackle understaffing through a dedicated hospice workforce plan to cut vacancy rates. • Support bereaved families by working with hospices to improve access to counselling and therapy for anyone needing support from the point of a loved one’s diagnosis. • Properly integrate hospices with our NHS including by embedding palliative care specialists in every hospital emergency department so people can be redirected towards care in the community. We also urge you to add End of Life Care advice as a call option on the 111 service. We cannot accept a Cinderella service, where dwindling hospice care is rationed and charitable fundraising falls further and further behind what is needed. Thousands of sick and dying people are crying out for relief. They deserve a system fit for the 21st century. Yours sincerely,

Alison Bennett Lib Dem Care and Carers Spokesperson Sir Ed Davey- Leader of the Lib Dems Daisy Cooper MP - Deputy Leader of the Lib Dems Helen Morgan MP - Lib Dem Health and Social Care Spokesperson Helen Maguire MP - Lib Dem Primary Care and Cancer Spokesperson Danny Chambers MP - Lib Dem Mental Health Spokesperson 57 Other Lib Dem MPs also co-signed

With support from Lib Dem colleagues, I've urged the Health Secretary to urgently address the hospice care crisis.

We can't accept a diminishing service where care is rationed and fundraising lags.

Thousands need relief, and we must do better.

New health and safety regulations mean that the Portree helipad and hundreds more will not be available for search and rescue helicopters - risking the health of people needing medical evacuation.

I have met with the Coastguard, Bristow, and the CAA and hope that a resolution can be found quickly.

Elon Musk is stoking far-right extremism on our streets.

The Prime Minister should order a security assessment of the threat Musk poses to our democracy.

@libdemdaisy.bsky.social

#PMQs

In constituencies right across the country, the Lib Dems are poised to beat the SNP. Right across the Highlands we’re going to see big Lib Dem gains and in Strathkelvin and Bearsden, Edinburgh Northern, Argyll and Bute and other parts of the country we’re very close to beating the SNP. - Alex Cole-Hamilton

Liberal Democrats are winning again.

The Holyrood election in May is an opportunity for change with fairness at its heart.

Because Scotland deserves better - and with the Scottish Liberal Democrats, you can vote for it.

A real Russian Shahed drone being put together in Parliament today. It’s 4m long and can carry 90kg of explosives. Russia manufactures 170 a day and most get directed onto civilian Ukrainian targets. Russia must lose this war for the sake of peace in Europe.

The hospice sector is in crisis. Families are terrified for their loved ones, yet the government continues to look away.

Our new campaign demands urgent action to fix this broken system.

The Highlands has very high level of suicide rates and mental health problems.

If you have a friend or family member that you worry about, contact Ewen’s Room, Lochaber Hope or Mikeysline.

NHS Highland need to improve their mental health provision dramatically.

👏🎉Congratulations to Muirtown Primary School, Inverness which has been honoured with the Fairtrade Foundation’s ‘Campaigner of the Month’ award, recognising their outstanding commitment to celebrating Fairtrade Fortnight and championing trade justice for farmers and workers around the world.

Doh! Im LibDem

I’ve no intention of having a back and forth on this. Go to the pub, I’m sure a lot of people would have a view.

Some thoughts from the road - the remote Highlands is in a demographic struggle

Liberal Democrats are winning again. The Holyrood election in May is an opportunity for change with fairness at its heart. Because Scotland deserves better - and with the Scottish Liberal Democrats, you can vote for it. - Alex Cole-Hamilton

No matter where you are in Scotland, you can elect a Liberal Democrat MSP on the peach-coloured regional ballot next year.

Every vote for the Scottish Liberal Democrats on that ballot will deliver change with fairness at its heart.

34 million people use the NHS app in England, but in Scotland we still don't have one.

Why, in 2025, are patients in Scotland still unable to benefit from an App that provides the same joined-up care that families in England have been able to rely on since before the pandemic?

Great to meet Angus MacDonald MP at #LDConf and learning about the impact reducing #ElectricityPrices would have on his constituency. Thanks for visiting, Angus!

Mikeysline does an amazing job helping those in crisis in the North of Scotland. It was a pleasure to meet some incredible volunteers today.

Whatever you’re going through, you can contact Mikeysline here oursupport.mikeysline.co.uk or call Samaritans for free any time, from any phone, on 116 123.

Reminder of my three surgeries tomorrow - Gairloch, Lochcarron, and Kyle

Speaker's corner: Angus MacDonald MP - Care home concerns need to be addressed "The Deputy First Minister and I are co-hosting a care summit in late October in Fort William, bringing together an outstanding collection of authorities on the subject."

As many of you know, social care in the Highlands is a major concern of mine.

Read my article in the Lochaber Times today about what I think needs to change - and why I'm hosting a conference with Kate Forbes to try and push the issue.

www.westcoasttoday.co.uk/opinion/spea...

I'll be in Gairloch, Lochcarron and Kyle on the 30th September doing surgeries.

Any concerns or questions, please do come along. Email angus.macdonald.mp@parliament.uk to book a slot.