As the Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Electoral Reform I am very pleased to be able to announce the publication of the Review of Voting Systems (Condensed) which the Group has just published with the help of the Electoral Reform Society. The APPG on Electoral Reform exists to foster discussion on, and support the cause of, electoral reform. I am keen that it is voters …
I welcome today’s Government announcement of a £1billion package to help families cut their fuel bills. These measures will make a real difference for people – including many of my constituents in Northfield. I am particularly pleased that these programmes will be funded primarily by a £910 million contribution from the energy companies. As you may know, I am one of several Labour MPs who have …
The annual Northfield Constituency Convention took place on Saturday 28 June. This year’s theme focussed on community safety and what is being done to make Northfield safer. Knife crime has recently dominated the headlines. It is a very serious issue – Richard recently wrote about it in his Westminster Diary (online here). But it is not the whole picture. And at the end of June people in …
Richard Burden MP has welcomed today’s joint announcement on agency workers by the Government, the CBI and the TUC. Earlier today the Business Secretary, John Hutton, explained that an agreement had been reached between employers and unions on new rules on equal treatment for agency workers after 12 weeks employment. Welcoming the announcement, Richard said: ‘I was one of the many Labour MPs who …
Several constituents have recently expressed their concern to me about the impact that the abolition of the 10p tax rate has on some people on low incomes. Like many other Labour MPs, I share their concern about this. Neither I, nor most MPs I have spoken to, intended people on low incomes to lose out as a result of the changes to the tax and benefits systems passed by Parliament last year with …
Before Christmas the Government announced that the Financial Assistance Scheme would be extended. Richard Burden welcomed this announcement and the security it will bring to the 140,000 people who lost their pensions. The Financial Assistance Scheme was introduced in 2005 to offer financial help to people who lost their savings when their employer-sponsored pension schemes collapsed. The scheme …
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.