East Yorkshire MP Greg Knight re-visited Bridlington Hospital to meet with staff including Hospital Deputy Chief Executive Mike Proctor, Health Trust Chief Executive Patrick Cowley and the newly appointed hospital manager, Hazel Rees to express his support for local health services being retained and expanded at the hospital.

Mr Knight has regularly supported Bridlington Hospital and has spoken out for maintaining local services. On this visit Mr Knight praised hospital staff for their hard work and dedication and expressed his view that hospital managers should ‘fully utilise’ the hospital’s capacity.

Mr Knight said, “It is clear that Bridlington Hospital is highly valued by the East Riding community. It is not a rundown Victorian building –but a modern hospital and the local Health Trust should look at what additional services they can offer from Bridlington”.

I was reassured by their pledge that, as an organisation, they are “committed to Bridlington Hospital.”

Parliament reassembles on the 8th May this year for the Annual State Opening. But one Yorkshire MP will be absent as he will be incarcerated as part of a ceremony that goes back to the time of Charles I.

As Peers and MP’s gather in the House of Lords to hear the Queen unveil the Government’s legislative programme for the forthcoming year, East Yorkshire MP Greg Knight will be prevented from attending.

In a convention dating back to the 17th Century, when Charles I relations with Parliament were icy to say the least, the Monarch’s visit to the Palace of Westminster only takes place when a ‘hostage’ has been handed over from the House of Commons to guarantee her safety.

This ‘honour’ goes to a senior Member of the Government Whips’ Office who, by convention, is the Vice-Chamberlain of the Royal Household. The current post-holder is Greg Knight, the MP for East Yorkshire. And so, on the morning of the State Opening, he will make his way to Buckingham Palace to be symbolically locked up until the Queen returns.

Mr Knight, a former solicitor, is accompanied to the Palace by two senior Whips, the Deputy Chief Whip, John Randall MP and the Comptroller of the Royal Household, Alastair Carmichael MP, who both return from the Palace with the Queen, escorting her to Parliament. Mr Knight is left behind to spend most of the day in Buckingham Palace.

Mr Knight performs several other Royal duties during the year. As well as his full-time duties as a Whip, which involves managing House of Commons business, he has to write to the Queen daily when the House is sitting to keep her informed of Commons proceedings. Also, several times a year, he reports on the decisions made by the Monarch to the House of Commons.

East Yorkshire MP Greg Knight has welcomed new figures pointing to a dramatic reduction metal theft across Yorkshire and the whole of Britain, following a change in the law.

Figures released by Network Rail show a 67% drop in metal theft over the past year, BT has seen a drop in metal theft of 50% and metal theft from churches in Yorkshire has also fallen sharply.

Mr Knight said: “This positive news follows the implementation of recent Government measures to tackle metal theft, by requiring all scrap metal dealers to be licensed and making it illegal for them to pay for scrap in cash.

Mr Knight added: “The disruption and loss which has been caused as a result of metal theft is unacceptable and I am pleased that this Government is successfully cracking down on it. The measures are working because Network Rail has reported a 54 per cent reduction in delays to passenger journeys and BT say faults are down by 24% due to falling metal theft”.

“This Government is getting tough on crime. Anyone tempted to flout the new rules on scrap metal trading will be hit with an unlimited fine”.

The Prime Minister and Chancellor George Osborne were the main guests of honour at a London reception to celebrate the 90th anniversary of the formation of the Conservative Party 1922 Committee this week.

Taking pride of place at the event was a 1923 Austin 12 Tourer, which was provided by the owner of the North Yorkshire Motor Museum, Derek Mathewson at the request of Greg Knight MP, who is the chairman of the Parliamentary Historic Vehicles Group.

Mr Knight praised the Chancellor for his support of the classic car movement and welcomed the extension of the exemption from Vehicle Excise Duty, introduced by the Chancellor and which is due to come into force next year.

Pictured at the event are, left to right, Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne MP, Derek Mathewson Esq., and Greg Knight MP.

MPs from Yorkshire have attended the funeral of Baroness Thatcher at St Paul’s Cathedral.

East Yorkshire MP Greg Knight and MP for Scarborough and Whitby Robert Goodwill both attended the service, in the presence of HM the Queen.

Also attending were Prime Minister David Cameron, former Prime Ministers Sir John Major, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown as well as numerous foreign dignitaries.

After the ceremony Greg Knight said, “It was a very moving occasion which I was honoured to attend. Whatever your view of her policies Margaret Thatcher was a giant in politics not just in the UK but on the world stage.”

Robert Goodwill said, “The world paid its last respects to a great Prime Minister. We were both impressed by the well-behaved crowds lining the route.”

“Whatever your view of her policies Margaret Thatcher was a giant in politics not just in the UK but on the world stage.

Her belief that nothing was impossible enabled Britain under her leadership to achieve the near impossible. I believe history will rank her amongst the greatest world leaders of all time.

She was also unusual in that in some respects she was a missionary in politics. That is a very high risk position because people do not generally want to be converted from the views they hold. They just want to hear their own views expressed by politicians but Lady Thatcher would go all out to achieve what she thought was right for Britain, whatever the short-term political cost.

I am proud to have both known her and served in her government. My thoughts now are with her family.”

East Yorkshire MP Greg Knight is warning local people to be alert to the latest phone scam which is sweeping across the country.

Well spoken con-artists are telephoning unsuspecting people and posing as detectives investigating stolen debit cards. The scammers then use various ploys to trick victims into revealing their card details.

Mr Knight said, “People need to exercise extreme caution when receiving these calls. Because calls to landlines can only be terminated by the caller, sometimes scammers will even stay on the line, so that when you think they have hung up and call your bank to report the incident, you are still speaking to them!”

Mr Knight added, “If you think you’re being scammed, stay calm and don’t be afraid to refuse to co-operate with the scammer! If they claim your card has been stolen, first of all check to see that you still have your debit card on your person and never give out your card details over the phone unless you are 100% sure of who is on the other end.”

East Yorkshire MP Greg Knight has appeared on stage with former Radio 1 DJ Mike Read to help raise money for MacMillan Cancer Support.

After a long day in Parliament Greg took to the stage at London’s Carlton Tower Hotel near Westminster with his Parliamentary band ‘MP4’.

Playing to a sell-out crowd, the band performed a selection of songs from the 1960’s to the present day. They were introduced to the audience by Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt MP, who praised the fund-raising efforts of the band.

During their set they were joined on stage by former Radio One DJ Mike Read, who did his famous Cliff Richard impersonation and sang the song ‘The Young Ones’ with the group.

The evening, supported by other MPs, Peers and guests raised £100,000 for the charity, which Mr Knight described as ‘a great success and a fantastic contribution to such a worthwhile cause from a very generous audience.’

Greg Knight, MP for East Yorkshire, celebrated the tenth anniversary of the launch of the UK’s first 3G mobile network this week with mobile operator Three.

Attending a reception to mark ten years of the mobile internet at a special event in Parliament, Greg said: “Services now regularly browsed on smart phones like YouTube and Twitter have changed the way consumers and businesses in East Yorkshire communicate and share information.

“How we use our mobile phones is almost unrecognisable from ten years ago and Three, as the new entrant to the market back in 2003, has been at the forefront of that transformation”.

Dave Dyson, Chief Executive of Three, said: “Our first ten years has seen massive changes in the way people use their mobile phones and how we all interact with each other. Our network was built for the internet and our commitment to providing great quality, great value mobile internet to our customers remains as strong as ever.

“With our Ultrafast network, I’m sure the next ten years will be an even greater success.”