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Welcome to my website and blog.
You can read a bit more about who I am and what makes me tick here. A summary of the work I did when I was Labour MP for Birmingham Northfield between 1992 and 2019 can also be found here.
The older posts on here date from my time as an MP but I have continued to blog since leaving Parliament.
The opening paragraphs of my blog posts appear at the bottom of this page in reverse date order. The “Read on” buttons take you to what I have written in full. My posts below also contain links to articles I have written and which have been published elsewhere, together with posts imported from my own Facebook page.
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These are the main subjects on which I’ve written. Click here to view the full list of categories.
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Israeli forces are said to have dropped more explosives on Gaza than fell on London, Dresden and Hamburg combined in the Second World War. The level of destruction is hard to fathom as is the humanitarian suffering.
Our Foreign Affairs Correspondent @SecKermani looks at the…
Some personal reflections on what Remembering Srebrenica means in 2025 – for Bosnia and Herzegovina, for the wider world and here in the UK..

“Two years after 7 October and the kidnap of my parents, hate is in fashion. For all our sakes, we need compassion” | Sharone Lifschitz | The Guardian
Remembering all those killed and those taken hostage in southern Israel two years ago today. Thoughts with those who lost loved ones and solidarity with the families of those still held in captivity.
This by @JeremyBenAmi, who lost friends that day, is very powerful. #October7
Two years after October 7, @JeremyBenAmi writes that to honor the victims and end the cycle of horror, we must reclaim a word too often scoffed at and shied away from: Peace.
🔗 https://jstreetdotorg.substack.com/p/two-years-after-october-7-it-is-time
Welcome to my latest Animal Welfare Round Up and the first one of 2017. I continue to receive emails from constituents about a number of issues around animal welfare. Here is what I’ve been doing on the issues you’ve asked me to raise. Kitten and Puppy Breeding This has been the most popular campaign issue among constituents in the last two months. Sadly, kittens and puppies are often …
Welcome to my latest Parliamentary newsletter, which gives me the opportunity to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Christmas is a time for us to not only look back on the past year, but also to look forward to the New Year, the challenges we face and the changes we might want to make in our own lives. For me personally, 2016 will always be remembered as the year my …
In recent weeks, I have received petitions, postcards and hundreds of other correspondence relating to funding, services and reorganisational threats facing our National Health Service. This is the response I have written to constituents. Many of you will recognise that for the last six years Labour have warned about threats of a funding crisis and an increase in unnecessary private investment …
Brexit continues to be one of the most prominent political issues, and that is reflected in the number of emails and letters I have had from constituents in recent weeks. At the end of last month I wrote an update on Brexit, five months on from the referendum result. You can read my article for more detail here. In light of the High Court ruling on whether Parliament should have a say over how …
I have received a huge number of emails and letters about Brexit in recent weeks and months. I wanted to share with you all the response I have sent out to constituents on Brexit and the way forward. As you may be aware in the weeks after the referendum, I wrote an initial response to the defining and far reaching challenges Brexit brings for our country. If you have not a chance to read it, much …
Below you can see my contribution to the Boundary Commission public consultation in Birmingham last week. You can have your say too here. I am grateful for the opportunity to provide some observations on the Boundary Commission’s provisional recommendations for the West Midlands and specifically for Birmingham. Introduction – Legislative Framework By way of introduction, I know that …
Let’s get one thing straight at the start. Thursday’s High Court decision did not change or overrule the result of June’s Referendum which voted for Britain to leave the European Union. I know that claiming something else makes for more lurid tabloid headlines but it is a fact. The High Court decision is about who should have a say in how Britain should go about leaving the European Union, not …
Welcome to my latest Parliamentary newsletter. This covers local issues and developments as well as my actions in Parliament. As ever, please do not hesitate to get in touch with me on these or any other issues. Best wishes, Richard In Birmingham Northfield Boundary Review The Boundary Commission published their proposals for changes to Parliamentary constituency boundaries in England …
Below is a copy of my article in the New Statesman on my recent visit to Bosnia. Two weeks ago, I joined a visit to Bosnia organised by Remember Srebrenica. If you have ever seen one of the Commonwealth War Graves cemeteries in Northern France, you will have a sense of what the cemetery in Potocari, near Srebrenica, is like. Row upon row of identical white headstones stretching into the …
Welcome to my latest Animal Welfare Round-Up. This is a newsletter I send out every two months to update you on the issues that many of you get in touch with me about. This allows me to update you on the action I’ve been taking on your behalf on these issues. You can find my previous AWRUs here. Bees and Pesticides This issue is one that I’ve received the most emails from constituents about …
Originally published in Bromsgrove Standard – 30 September 2016 Many of you may have already heard the recent news that MG has announced they intend to cease assembling vehicles at their site in Longbridge. With the loss of around 25 local jobs, the overall scale of this is vastly different from when MG Rover stopped production over a decade ago – with the loss of over 6,500 jobs. But it …
Responding to news that MG intend to cease assembling vehicles at the Longbridge site, Richard Burden MP said: “MG’s decision to close its assembly line at Longbridge is hugely disappointing and I believe it is premature. I understand the business concerns that MG have surrounding costs of assembly at Longbridge, which have undoubtedly been aggravated by problems with the strength of 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.
