If Parliament looks like being quiet for a few weeks, maybe another poetry event like this could be staged there? A group of poets from Batley, West Yorkshire, recently headed down to London to recite their poetry in the Palace of Westminster. They were joined by multi-award winning poet and Radio 4 presenter Daljit Nagra for a poetry session organised by Batley and Spen MP Tracy Brabin.

Mohamed Saloo from Batley Poets said: “It was after a poetry session late last year when Tracy and I just came up with this brilliant idea to share the brilliant poetry of Batley Poets with a much wider audience. Poets in Parliament just sounded like it was meant to be.”

When the expenses of the journey and the room and event became a stumbling block, up stepped a sponsor - Yorkshire-based Regal Food Products, which manufactures, distributes and export snacks and drinks and is a household name in the homes of Asian families.

Eight Batley Poets performed at the event at the beginning of last month which was attended by other poets, MPs and the public. Mohamed added: “It was a brilliant event which as a teenager I could only ever dream of. The Batley Poets were brilliant and we were all in awe of both the poetry of Daljit and his wonderful encouragement.

“The poets are all of differing political thoughts, diverse in race and in faith but we have the ability to appreciate one another, listen to each other’s poetry and laugh together. This is a blueprint we wanted to share and I am so pleased we did. In the heart of the capital we took a flavour of Batley.”