This Thursday was Clean Air Day, and I met with representatives from the British Heart Foundation to hear about the devastating impacts that air pollution can have on our health.

The most recent figures show that there around 11,000 people die prematurely each year from heart attacks and strokes related to the high levels of pollution in our air. For people with existing heart disease and cardiovascular problems the dangerously high levels of pollution we see in many areas of the UK pose a serious further risk to their health.

It’s time this Government did something about it, because it’s vital that our air quality laws have peoples’ health at their core. That’s why I’m backing the British Heart Foundation and their campaign to make the UK’s air cleaner and safer for the future.