At UEA, the colossal task of uniting the student body to form a political consensus has been nearly impossible recently. After a general election, wars, scandals and Westminster sleaze, our little political ecosphere looks like a mangled rabbit; an oozing bloody pulp and torn muscle. But perhaps that can change today. I’m writing a call to arms for Socialists, Conservatives, Liberals, and even Greens. 

Clive Lewis, your MP for South Norwich, is failing to do his job. For all his bravado, his ever-so-loud rhetoric about why the King is so horrific, and his almost constant willingness to ‘challenge the establishment’ with his ‘oh-so-brave’ use of explicit language in Parliament, he really does seem to struggle to muster any energy to challenge Keir Starmer. 

Firstly, a devolution deal for Norwich was recently scrapped. In the words of the county council, “More than £600m of investment to create jobs, homes, and infrastructure has been scrapped.” Worse yet, the minister responsible hadn’t had the common decency to tell the County Council leader themselves. So what did our little old MP have to say about it? In fairness, he did respond—just not with a coherent excuse. He backed the minister, stating, ‘devolution works best when local authorities partner up’ along with some other waffle about building on existing arrangements. All this spin translates to practically ‘I’m useless, I have no excuse—don’t look at me!’ 

That’s not to say he hasn’t done any good at all. Clive Lewis has supported the UEA Dentistry School, and he did challenge the redundancies of staff at UEA in mid-2023. However, respect from the public is not earned once, it must be continually earned through deeds to their constituents. 

And sure, Lord Lewis’s local labour underlings shot out yapping that this would no doubt mean ‘…a new and better deal.’ A key reminder, though: the deal was widely supported by over 60% of polled respondents, and the government is already preparing the country for what sounds like austerity 2 electric boogaloo. Instead, the closest thing Clive has gotten to talking about devolution is pandering to SNP wet dreams of even greater powers for themselves and whatever a ‘federated UK’ is supposed to mean. These are not promising signs of a new devolution deal for Norfolk. 

Now the matter of the winter fuel payments—a government policy that will mean more pensioners will have to choose between eating or heating. It’s a ghastly thought that our elderly nannies and grandads, who’ve done their bit for society, could be subjected to such grim cruelty. Often, I don’t give credit to MPs, but Rosie Duffield’s resignation from Labour on grounds such as this is an example of an MP who is principled and willing to put country over party. Another example is the seven Labour MPs who rebelled and lost their whip on the parliamentary bill itself. But where was our rebellious, hard-left, oath-failing MP? Abstaining. Perhaps even shivering at the potential thought of being caught red-handed abandoning the values of his wing of the party. 

Considering these failures, we must take a stand. The Students’ Union should distance itself from Clive Lewis. This means no endorsements, no pictures, and no leveraging SU officer accounts for political gain. The Students’ Union is inherently political, and it’s time we harness that power for our local concerns. Clive can’t hide. 

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