Matthew was delighted to meet with organisers of the World Book Day in the Houses of Parliament.

World Book Day is the registered charity behind the UK’s biggest annual celebration of children’s books. Every year World Book Day releases a list of £1 books for children and young people across the UK and Ireland, which they can choose for free at their local bookshop using their £1 World Book Day book token (or take £1 of any book)!

The campaign encourages parents and carers everywhere to read and share stories with their children for ten minutes every day. The aim is to inspire new reading habits in both children and adults and to bring back reading for pleasure as a national pastime.  

Matthew is pleased with the popularity of World Book Day in the constituency and even collected some extra books to give to some lucky constituents.

Matthew also used the day to reiterate his pledge of ensuring all schools within the constituency have a library onsite. With reading and literacy key to the growing UK economy, he said: "I want to see every school in the Hendon constituency have access to books and publications in their own libraries. Unfortunately, this isn’t the case in all schools, and I will work with this campaign to encourage improved literacy and reading skills. Reading for pleasure is more important to a child’s academic success than their family background, their parents’ income, or education. Reading is vital for the success of our young people.’

Moe information about the scheme can be found at https://www.worldbookday.com/