Last week, I attended an event in the House of Commons to back the GMB union’s campaign calling for support for Teaching Assistants in Northfield.
You may know that the Greater Birmingham and Solihull LEP is currently developing its Strategic Economic Plan (SEP), which will be submitted to the Government at the end of March 2014, and form the basis of the city-regions negotiations for a a ‘Growth Deal’. It is a crucial time for determining how our city region will drive growth and new opportunities in the future.
On the 5th March, I held a debate in the House of Commons to ask the Government why two farmers’ markets in South Birmingham, including Kings Norton Farmers’ Market in my constituency, had suddenly lost their tax exemption – at the same time as huge multinational firms like Amazon, Google, Starbucks and Vodafone continue to get away with paying almost nothing.
All political parties try to grab headlines and present stories in a way that makes a political point. But there are bottom lines. That is why it is just not right to manufacture stories to discredit your opponents and scare local people in the hope of getting votes for yourself. Unfortunately, that seems to be what at least some Conservatives are trying to do in Northfield right now. They have …
Next Friday, the 21st of February, I’m very proud that I will be hosting a major jobs fair for South Birmingham at Bournville College in Longbridge, as part of The Climb Project I launched last year.
I hope that local people will be able to attend and see the fantastic opportunities that are available here in South Birmingham.
Residents have contacted me about reports that the North Worcestershire Golf Course in my constituency may be sold off for redevelopment as a housing estate.
Local councillors and I have opposed this in the past and we had been assured by the Golf Club that they had no such plans. Therefore, we are as concerned to hear the latest reports as local residents have been.
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.