People’s Policy Forum
Today I went to Labour’s People’s Policy Forum at the ICC in Birmingham. It was great to see Ed Miliband in the region listening to people’s concerns and spreading his message of One Nation Labour. People say politicians don’t listen, but some of them do. And they say ordinary people have given up on politics,...
Challenges for the Region
What are the big issues in the West Midlands? Well, the employment rate is 3% lower than the UK rate. The average worker actually in a job earns £30 a week less. Fewer of our young people get their GCSEs than the UK as a whole. We have the second highest proportion of citizens with...
My Brum Inquiry
Today saw the release of the much anticipated My Brum findings, titled, ‘Birmingham: Where the World Meets’. The report is based on the Inquiry set up by the Birmingham City Council Social Cohesion Overview and Scrutiny Committee, chaired by Cllr Waseem Zaffar. It focused on how social cohesion can be maxised to the greatest use in the cultural melting...
Birmingham votes Labour and no to an elected Mayor
I am proud that our great city is now firmly back under Labour control. A Labour council will make a massive difference to people’s lives here. But an elected Mayor would have made more. That is a conviction for which I gave up my seat in Parliament and to which I have dedicated the two...
Time to send the Tories (and Lib Dems) packing
The message to the voters of London and Birmingham tomorrow is clear: it’s time to send the Tories (and their Lib Dem lackeys) packing. Here is my post to that effect on Labour Uncut. And here’s a picture of my campaign team sending them packing from Weoley ward, where old comrade and outstanding Labour candidate,...
Birmingham TUC and Birmingham Forward
Same building, but two different meetings tonight. First Birmingham Forward, then down the grand stairs of the Council House to a meeting of Birmingham TUC. The Forward meeting was chaired by the BBC’s Patrick Burns and the panel included the chair of Birmingham Forward, Gary Cardin, and two speakers from the Warwick Commission who...
Speaking at historic Hawthorn House
On Saturday 14 April I was invited to speak to an audience of Handsworth Wood residents in the splendid setting of Hawthorn House. Conveniently situated a short dash from the Baggies’ home ground I arrived buoyed up by a 1-0 victory against QPR and expecting a small gathering. By the time we got underway, however, it...
Labour should allow sitting MPs to stand for Mayor
In today’s Birmingham Post I outline that while I stood down before the last general election, deliberately to avoid a costly by-election, I believe it’s now too late for Labour to stop sitting MPs from standing for Mayor. The intervention was reported in the Guardian here and the Independent here.
Meeting Unite Birmingham branch members
I was invited by Unite members to a meeting about elected Mayors this evening. I began by describing how I had been a trade union member since I was 21 and was a Unite-supported MP. It was a massive privilege to represent Birmingham Erdington in parliament for nine years, but I came to believe that Birmingham...
Meeting Sir Robin Wales
I met Sir Robin Wales, the elected Mayor of Newham, east London, this evening. Just like Sir Peter Soulsby, the Mayor of Leicester, the first thing Robin told me was that being the Mayor was radically different from being leader of the council. “Nobody knows who the leader of the council is. But as the...
Budget is a missed opportunity for Brum
Today the chancellor, George Osborne, unveiled his third budget. I think it is a budget of missed opportunities, especially for Birmingham. Birmingham needed a budget for growth and jobs; unfortunately we got neither. The chancellor’s statement utterly fails to get to grips with the chronic problems of long-term and youth unemployment that scar our city....
My 10-point plan for a better Birmingham
I have unveiled my 10-point plan for building a better Birmingham – and I want your views on it. Having spent almost two years talking to Brummies from all over the city and from all walks of life, I’ve come up with 10 things I believe an elected Mayor should do that would make a...
