Former
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 former Facebook page. My current Facebook account is here.
To view posts on a specific subject, from both during and after my time in Parliament, please click one of the buttons below.
These are the main subjects on which I’ve written. Click here to view the full list of categories.
Here is the link to my Bluesky account, and here is the link to my Twitter/X account. You can view my latest Facebook posts here. I also have a LinkedIn profile.
Click on ‘Contact’ below to get in touch with me.
This feed refreshes intermittently. Please log in to X (Twitter) to view my newest tweets in full.
‘The Miliband package bring us from recognition to policy’ – via @LabourList
Thoughts on UK action against trade with Israel’s illegal settlements and the reactions to it:
Shana Tova to all celebrating Rosh Hashanah 🍯🍎
You may have read that the BBC have committed to a new vision for Birmingham, with a promise of a £23.5 million investment for our city. This is a major step forward in a long running campaign to boost the BBC’s presence in Birmingham and the Midlands more widely. Along with other Labour MPs, I have long been calling for a fair a share of BBC investment in our region. There is a huge gap …
I’m something of a petrol-head. I love driving and I used to do a bit of motor racing. But I’m a regular public transport user too, and in London I usually walk to and from work. Cycling? Yes, but not as often as I should. All these things make me a “road user” – well, apart from the racing. However, when I’m moving about I want to feel safe on the roads, like everyone else. But like a lot of …
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 …
This week I met with former world land speed record holder Richard Noble at the Institution of Mechanical Engineers’ Bloodhound SuperSonic Car exhibition in the House of Commons.
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 …
Last week (Thursday 24 October), I was delighted to lead a cross-party visit of MPs and Lords to the McLaren Technology Centre, as part of an industry visit organised by the Motor All-Party Parliamentary Group and the Industry and Parliament Trust.
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.
This week's figures showed a small fall in unemployment in both in my Northfield Constituency and across Birmingham are welcome. But behind the figures we see the chronic levels of long term youth unemployment in the area continuing to rise. More and more people under the age of 24 have been out of work for over a year. That's where my Climb Project comes in - both to help address some of the …
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 …
I have recently submitted evidence to the House of Commons Select Committee inquiry into the "educational underachievement of white working class children." Four years after I first raised this issue there remains a severe gap in educational achievement between poor and better off white children – and not enough action taken on the problem. I’m therefore very please the Select Committee have …
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.
