General election - what happens now?
May 23, 2024
We are aware the general election causes concern for many people within the ME community in relation to the progress of the Delivery Plan.
We have been assured on numerous occasions that the Plan holds cross-party support and expect work to continue as planned.
Parliament will be dissolved on 30 May meaning all MPs will lose their parliamentary status and their access to parliamentary resources.
From Friday, Carol Monaghan, Chair of the APPG and the Inquiry Panel, will no longer be an MP as will be the case for the other Panel members; APPGs also cease to exist. Sadly, this means that the APPG's Severe ME Inquiry will not continue, despite it already having held its first hearing session.
Following the general election, we will work collaboratively to reconstitute the APPG. This will require an inaugural meeting to be held and new officers elected. An application will be submitted to register the APPG and the APPG will only exist once the Registry Office has approved its inclusion on the APPR Register. The Guide to the Rules for APPGs can be found HERE.
We know that there are many questions about what will happen next. We have very limited capacity in our comms team and are experiencing a lot of sickness throughout the organisation. We are sorry if we can't answer respond to all the individual questions and concerns. We will share information on our website and social media as we have it.
In the meantime, we will continue to focus on:
- Delivering our healthcare, information and support services
- Engaging with potential candidates in the forthcoming election, raising understanding about ME and the need for urgent action
- Delivering the DecodeME and LOCOME studies
- Building new collaborations to accelerate research.
