Responding to the fifth cyclist death in nine days to happen in London, Labour’s Shadow Transport Minister Richard Burden MP said: “The news of another cyclist being killed on the road in London is a real tragedy. A lot of good work is already being done to promote cycling in the capital and to improve safety for cyclists, which makes the events of the last week even more tragic. It all …
As a Birmingham MP I’ve long supported HS2 because I know the benefits it can bring to our region. It’s not so much about shaving a bit here or there from journey times. Last year, over 1.5 billion journeys were made on the rail network. That is over 4,000 more train services a day than in the mid-1990s. Dwindling capacity means that more and more people will have to endure cramped …
October has certainly been a busy month for me. You may have heard that I have recently been appointed a Shadow Minister within Labour’s Transport Team – a very exciting opportunity that I have written about further in my monthly newsletter for October. I have also been calling for action on a number of important issues for Birmingham Northfield, including knife crime, education and the BBC …
It was a real privilege to co-host Birmingham Day in Parliament today, which was a great initiative put forward by my Labour colleague Gisela Stuart MP.
I’m delighted to have been appointed by Ed Miliband to Labour’s Shadow Transport Team with responsibility for, amongst other issues, roads and road safety, motor agenices, cycling and future transport. Former Shadow Ministers Jim Fitzpatrick and Yvonne Fovargue did a fantastic job in raising automotive and local transport issues up the agenda, and I am excited to be building on these campaigns. I …
Despite the fact that 1 in 4 British adults experience at least one mental health problem every year, there remains a huge reluctance to talk about mental illness. A recent report by the charity Rethink Mental Illness revealed that over a third of the annual 100,000 ‘avoidable deaths’ in the UK are amongst people with mental health problems. This highlights the urgent need to tackle this stigma …
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.