In January I introduced a Private Members Bill into the House of Commons. The bill creates a new bank holiday, on St George’s Day in England and St David’s Day in Wales. As you can imagine, I am therefore delighted that the Government is going to consult on moving the May day Bank Holiday to St George’s Day. As the Member of Parliament for an important tourist destination I obviously strongly agree with the economic arguments for extending the tourism season with an earlier holiday. However there is also strong public support for a national day and in particular strong support for St George’s Day to be made a bank holiday. A YouGov poll in December of last year found that of 18 possible occasions the most popular (at 22%) to be made a bank holiday was St George’s day, with the creation of Trafalgar day being supported by just 8% of the population. As you can imagine I will certainly be urging the government to move forward with this proposal, and I urge members of the public to also do so. You can watch my speech introducing my bill below