Reading West MP and Parliamentary spokesman for angling, Martin Salter has written to Fisheries Minister Huw Irranca-Davies regarding the ongoing campaign by the British Canoe Union (BCU) to achieve a statutory right of access regardless of the impact on other river users or on the environment.

Reading West MP and Parliamentary spokesman for angling Martin Salter has secured some significant victories for angling in the Marine Bill which completed its Committee stage in the House of Commons last week. Mr Salter was selected to serve on the Commons committee stage of the Bill and in advance he convened a meeting with representatives of the Angling Trust and the Salmon and Trout Association to ensure that all relevant issues were raised or amendments proposed.

I have to say the summer recess can’t come quickly enough as far as I’m concerned as the pace of the work here in Westminster shows no sign of abating. In the past few weeks I have been trying juggle my work as a member of the Marine Bill Committee with sittings of the Home Affairs Committee and the meetings of the new Select Committee on Parliamentary Reform, to which I was recently elected. All of this has been on top of an intensive campaign for the election of the new Speaker, and our successful campaign to achieve settlement rights for the Gurkhas.

Labour’s angling spokesman and Reading West MP Martin Salter has finally made good a promise he made twelve years ago to go fishing in the Thames outside the Houses of Parliament. Mr Salter joined angling author and broadcaster John Bailey for a day on the River Thames in Westminster and further downstream in London’s Docklands in order to demonstrate that the capital’s river is capable of sustaining a wide variety of fish life.

Reading West MP and former member of the Northern Ireland Select Committee, Martin Salter today held a debate in the House of Commons calling for women in Northern Ireland to be granted the same rights the access safe and legal abortion services on the NHS as those in mainland Britain.

The House of Commons authorities today reversed the decision to ban the Scout Association from lobbying MPs in Westminster Hall following the intervention of the newly elected Speaker, John Bercow.

Reading West MP Martin Salter has strongly criticised the House of Commons authorities for banning the Scout Association from using Westminster Hall to lobby MPs because they “are not old enough to vote”. A planned lobby of Parliament protesting over increases in water charges to voluntary groups was due to take place in Westminster Hall on 15th July until the House authorities cancelled the booking as the 100 cub scouts were “ineligible to vote.”

Recreational sea anglers have received a cast iron assurance from Fisheries Minister Huw Irranca-Davies MP that they will be able to fish and enjoy the benefits of the new Marine Conservation Zones (MCZs) which are to be established as a result of the Marine Bill which is currently undergoing its committee stage in the House of Commons. Parliamentary spokesman for angling Martin Salter has been pressing the Minister to put on the record his support for sea angling within the MCZs in order allay any fears or misapprehensions.

Parliamentary spokesman for angling Martin Salter MP continued his mullet fishing exploits with a trip to a Hampshire estuary in the company of Steve Smith, recently elected chairman of the National Mullet Club. Martin caught his first mullet last year and has developed a new interest in pursuing this most enigmatic of fish using standard coarse fishing tactics.

It was a real privilege last Thursday to be invited to speak at a victory rally for the Gurkhas in London alongside Joanna Lumley and the Gurkha Justice Campaign. There was a wonderful atmosphere and a real sense of a job well done.