Today is National Voter Registration Day!
Raising awareness of National Voter Registration Day is even more important as parents can no longer sign up adult children and Universities can no longer sign up students.
It only takes 5 minutes to #RegisterToVote online, do it now: .
I know how fed up people are about the way Governments and Councils behave. Sometimes it seems like politicians are all show, talking a different language and not listening to what people are saying to us. I have always tried to be a different kind of politician – taking up the issues that matter to local people and giving residents a say in the decisions that matter to you. So I am really...
Lots of local people have written to me about the Recall of MP’s Bill, which is currently being considered in Committee Stage in the House of Commons. I absolutely support the principle of right to recall when an MP has done something wrong. I think it would be really important for strengthening our democracy – and may go some way to help to restore public trust in politics. I do not...
As the Referendum on Scottish Independence has got closer, the words “solidarity” and “self- determination” have come into my head time and time again. I guess like many on the Left in England, for a long time I reckoned my commitment to principle of self-determination meant that I should hold back. Surely, I thought, independence was a matter for people in Scotland to decide, not something for...
Scores of local people have contacted me over the past week to share their concerns on the Transparency of Lobbying, Non-Party Campaigning and Trade Union Administration Bill, which received its second reading in the House of Commons on Tuesday 3 September.
A few weeks ago, a constituent contacted me asking why I was seeking a £10,000 pay rise for MPs. My answer was simple: I had not done so and I am not doing so. MP’s do not set our own pay. MPs’ salaries are decided by a body which is completely independent of Parliament called IPSA - the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority. So what do I think about it? First, when people are feeling the...
I was Labour Member of Parliament for Birmingham Northfield between 1992 and 2019 and a former Shadow Transport Minister. I now chair Healthwatch in Birmingham and Solihull, and the West Midlands Board of Remembering Srebrenica. I also work as a public affairs consultant. I am an effective community advocate and stakeholder alliance builder with a passion for human rights. I am a trustee of the Balfour Project charity and of Citizens Advice Birmingham, and a former Chair of Medical Aid for Palestinians.