February 2026 Newsletter

I hope all’s well with you and your loved ones. My monthly email is a bit late, which I can only apologise for, as it's been an extraordinarily busy time!

There's been so much going on in February – with meetings here in Witney on issues from climate change to potholes; and debates in Westminster on everything from Universal Credit, to Thames Water, to firearms regulation.

Plus, with elections to West Oxfordshire District Council coming up in May, I’ve spent a lot of my evenings and weekends supporting our brilliant team of local candidates. You might be interested to hear more about them here: https://www.charliemaynard.co.uk/campaigns/district-council-elections-2026

Before I get into my usual round up of everything I’ve been up to, I would like to highlight a fantastic achievement from my casework team – by the end of February they had already worked on more than 700 new casework inquiries since the start of the year.

I’m extremely grateful to them for their hard work and dedication in helping me answer all the queries that come into our office. Please don’t hesitate to reach out to us if you have a question for me, or there is anything we can help you with. 

Around the Constituency

I've continued touring around the constituency holding advice surgeries, including a very busy one in Carterton in mid-February.

Thank you to everyone who came along. It was a busy session with many residents coming in to see me to discuss local issues and ask for my teams help. The event was so well attended, sadly we were not able to meet with everyone on the day and my apologies if we didn’t get a chance to talk, but my office is here to assist if you get in touch by email or phone – and hopefully I will see you for a future meeting!

Whilst my ‘On Tour’ surgeries are drop-in sessions, we also have pre-booked surgery appointments at my Witney office or online so please do reach out to me and my team if we can be of assistance in this area. 

The Highways team have told me they have doubled the number of crews who are out fixing potholes, and they’re also going to start publishing numbers of how many potholes have been fixed so there is greater transparency about this.

Since January 2025, OCC have repaired around 8,000 potholes in West Oxfordshire. Clearly that is not enough, as many more keep appearing. This remains a massive challenge and is really frustrating – for me too.

There is a very long way to go before our roads are back to where they should be, and at the root of this, is the longstanding challenge of local government funding. The reality is that Council budgets are stretched to breaking point and with so many competing priorities, from children’s services, to adult social care, funding simply doesn’t go far enough.

At a national level this is something my colleagues in the Lib Dems have been calling on the Government to address for a long time, and we’ll continue to do so. 

Working for You in Westminster

In Parliament, at the start of the month I spoke in a debate about the Government’s proposed changes to the rules for becoming eligible for Indefinite Leave to Remain.

I’m particularly concerned about the government’s entirely unfair plans to move the goalposts by applying changes retrospectively to people who have been living and working in the UK for years.

I raised the case of a constituent, Petra, a care worker in Witney, who was kind enough to tell me about her experiences. You can read more about Petra’s story here: https://www.itv.com/news/meridian/2026-02-13/mothers-fear-for-her-future-as-residency-rules-set-to-double 

I’ve continued to campaign hard to improve treatment and outcomes for people with less survivable cancers. This month, on World Cancer Day, the Government published its Cancer Plan. Although, it shows good progress the plan contains no new funding or infrastructure, leaving me to question its feasibility.

I’ve been working alongside campaigners for Owains Law – who are calling for all hospitals to freeze brain tumour tissue removed during surgery for use in vaccines or research. I’ve spoken about this issue in Parliament and raised it with the Health Minister who has agreed to work on the issue.

Following these debates, I received a letter from Minister Dalton to let me know an additional £11.7 million will be announced for the Brain Tumour Consortium and £3 million to co‑fund the Cancer Research UK Brain Tumour Centres of Excellence, this year.

The Business and Trade Select Committee has held some interesting and varied meetings as always! Some of the topics we covered this month were:

• A briefing on how the Government could enforce a ban on the trade of goods produced in the illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank. 
• Consumer protection, where we heard from representatives from Citizen’s Advice and Which?  
• A pre-appointment hearing with the Government’s proposed new Chair of the Competition and Markets Authority, Doug Gurr. Doug Gurr used to be the UK Country Manager at Amazon, and I used the session to challenge him about the run-ins that Amazon UK has had with the CMA during and after his time there, and whether this should raise red flags about his new appointment. 

There have been a number of useful meetings this month about Witney Rail, including with the head of the Oxford Growth Commission.

The OGC has been set up to coordinate the delivery of infrastructure, housing and employment across Oxfordshire, and given the huge number of new houses the Labour Government is asking Oxfordshire to accommodate, it is crucial we have the infrastructure to tackle challenges like congestion on local roads, ahead of that.

I spoke in a debate on the Government’s new Free Trade Agreement with India.

While I welcome the limited economic benefits this may bring (although I would emphasise that I think these are tiny compared to the opportunities of greater trade alignment with the EU, which the Government should be prioritising); I also share the concerns of civil society groups, about clauses in the agreement on labour, the environment and human rights being characterised by a pattern of “aspirational language and a lack of enforceability”.

Whenever we are negotiating new trade agreements, I would argue that we should set minimum standards including on human rights, conflict and oppression, environmental, and labour.

I am also concerned that India is helping to undermine sanctions on Russia, by selling Russia-originated petrichemicals into the UK – something the Government appears to have turned a blind eye to when negotiating the FTA. 

At a Westminster Hall Debate on regulation of the water sector, I raised the issue of Thames Water being in yet more breaches of its license conditions, by having effectively undergone a change of the company’s ‘Ultimate Controller’ - as I believe it is their creditors who are now largely setting the direction of the business.

I think the regulator and the Government are overlooking serious rule breaking from Thames Water here and need to get a grip on it.

At a briefing organised by Amnesty International, on healthcare in Gaza, I heard from a British doctor who has been working in the region, and even since the ‘ceasefire’ took effect, has witnessed people – including children – being shot at and killed.

It was harrowing to hear. Our Government and the international community must do all it can to ensure peace and stability, and that the ceasefire is genuinely upheld. This is not currently the case. 

This month I was pleased that the Government finally brought forward legislation which is long overdue to remove the two-child benefit cap.

I have had heart-breaking emails from constituents impacted by this cap, as I am sure all MPs have, including people who are having to skip meals to ensure their children do not go without, because each month their money does not go far enough.

This change will lift 540,000 children out of absolute poverty, and it is the right thing to do - not just for those children and for their families, but also for our economy, our public services and our society as a whole.

I hope the Government will now go further and consider other measures to address child poverty.

Another issue which has caused concern to a number of constituents this month, is whether the Government will bring forward proposals to bring shotgun licensing requirements in line with those for other firearms.

I spoke in a debate on this and expressed that, while I think there are a number of ways in which licensing could be improved, this would be the wrong solution. It would have a significant impact on rural communities which the Government have not appreciated and would be a very burdensome system without proper evidence that it would be effective.

Back in August, new checks were brought in, which I fully support, and I have urged the Government to let those bed in and see a hopefully positive impact from them, before taking further steps.

Finally, my last Parliamentary debate of the month was on a technical – but important bit of process – around how MPs scrutinise the Government’s budget plans, and how they are assessed against their fiscal rules for getting debt and public spending under control.

I argued that if we are serious about the responsible management of the public finances, tackling our high levels of debt and getting our economy growing again, we should introduce proper parliamentary debate of the Government’s budget, followed by a subsequent period of scrutiny and accountability. This could do much to improve market confidence.

As ever, if you have any questions or you would like my help, please email me on charlie.maynard.mp@parliament.uk and lay out your concerns & struggles.

I will continue to do what I can to help.

Best wishes,

Charlie Maynard MP