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 own Facebook page.
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 also view my Facebook page and 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.
Yes – West Midlands Police have serious questions to answer about their behaviour. But it is not the whole story. You wouldn’t know it from most of the commentary today, but this @TimesofIsrael piece provides important context around the Maccabi issue
Chair @SarahChampionMP has written with concern to Foreign Secretary @YvetteCooperMP over the Israeli Government’s treatment of @UNRWA and other INGOs, which run a range of services for Palestinians in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
Read more: https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/98/international-development-committee/news/211214/international-development-committee-chair-urges-foreign-secretary-to-act-over-unrwa-restrictions/
Trump’s coup in Venezuela didn’t just break the rules – it showed there aren’t any. We’ll all regret that | Nesrine Malik
It is now more than seven years since the Phoenix Four made their promise to set up a trust fund for former MG Rover workers, when the company closed in 2005.
You may have seen the report in today’s Birmingham Mail about a High Court ruling against Phoenix Venture Holdings’ application for HBOS to disclose financial information relating to the disposal of 8,000 cars.
On a delegation with the All-Party Parliamentary Jordan Group, I visited Ramtha in the north of Jordan with Andrew Harper from UNHCR to look at the situation facing refugees fleeing from Syria and the impact this is having in Jordan.
Damon Hill is right to call on the governing body of motor sport to rethink its decision to go ahead with this year’s Bahrain Grand Prix. I say that as someone who is a motor sport nut as well as an MP with a keen interest in the Middle East. The inquiry which the Bahrain Government set up into the events on its streets last year proved to be more independent than many expected and there is …
Seven years ago the UK led countries in pledging to spend 0.7% of gross national income on overseas development assistance. It's a promise the world made to itself. It's a promise I'm proud of. It's a promise we should stick by. And when we are talking about numbers, and percentages, and targets, we shouldn't forget what we are really talking about - improving the lives of the poorest people in …
It has been an eventful week in Westminster. The Queen addressed both Houses of Parliament to mark her Diamond Jubilee. The controversial Health Bill returned to the House of Commons. But the big political event of the week was, of course, the Budget. The Budget will be a big disappointment to my constituents. The Chancellor could have done so many things to help, but he didn’t. Instead he chose …
This week saw the Health and Social Care Bill pass through the final stages in the House of Lords. This sadly means that it is likely to achieve Royal Assent and become law before Easter. David Cameron said the NHS was safe under the Tories, but he and his out of touch government are taking it backwards. They are wasting billions on this damaging reorganisation – opposed by patients, nurses and …
We finally entered Gaza through its Rafah border crossing with Egypt mid Sunday morning and spent the next 22 hours in the strip. As ever, Gaza was surreal. Things that logically could not sit side by side do so. To understand the place, you have to suspend disbelief. For the next 22 hours we did so.
I have just returned from a parliamentary delegation to the Gaza Strip. I will write more about the visit later this week but, for now, here are two videos filmed in Gaza – the first on a visit to the Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery and the second at the fish market on the seafront of Gaza City.
I was last in Gaza almost exactly three years ago. I was part of one of the first groups of MPs to enter after Israel's ‘Operation Cast Lead’ which left over 1,300 Palestinians dead, the majority of them civilians and 352 of them children. Over 5,000 more were wounded.
Three years on, I had hoped by now to see how much had changed. But I write this near to - but not inside - Gaza.
The hot topic in Westminster this week is, once again, the NHS.
Not surprising, perhaps, given that the NHS is facing the biggest financial challenge in its history and, at the same time, the government has launched the biggest top-down reorganisation since 1948.
Lots of constituents have contacted me about the Cities fit for cycling campaign being led by The Times to improve cycling safety in British cities.
I have joined them in supporting this campaign and have added my name to a parliamentary motion calling on the government to take further action to improve cycling infrastructure and reduce the number of casualties on roads.
Pleased to have the chance to talk to racing driver Jason Plato at the launch of the MG KX Momentum BTCC Racing Team at the MG factory in Longbridge.
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.
