WELCOME TO MY JULY NEWSLETTER

Street Meetings
 

I have been holding my regular Street Meetings around the Borough this month:

You can read full writebacks from these meetings on my website. If you have a local issue you would like to hold a meeting about, please do get in touch with my office on the details at the bottom of this email.

This month I was invited to visit Beckton Sewage Treatment Works which serves our community. I was able to see the massive infrastructure they have in place, and talked about how they can use this to convert waste product into green gas to sell back to the grid. We know how important it is to be aware of our carbon footprint so both Thames Water and the Government need to find the resources to retrofit the site and contribute positively to our climate challenge.
 

Barking Train Station
 

I know how important accessibility is in the Borough, but current plans for Barking Station's redevelopment will leave it with only one lift. This is insufficient and totally unacceptable. What happens if this lift breaks down? Or during rush hour?

So this month I had a further meeting with the c2c Property Director to see if we could come up with some solutions together. I have written to the Rail Minister, Mayor's Office, and TfL to see if we can get the funding and physical space to get more lifts put in. I will keep you all updated as I continue to work on this.

Economic crime and fraud are huge issues which continues to affect local people in Barking and Dagenham and right across the country. I know that many of you have been the victims of fraud. I have acted on an outrageous number of cases over the years after residents got in touch with me.

That is why I have continued to work on toughening up the Economic Crime Bill. Last month we saw some real progress, with a number of government concessions. We also won key votes including on increased transparency to property ownership and better accountability for companies that facilitate fraud. I will continue to fight on this until we are all better protected from the scourge of dirty money.

Earlier last month I spoke in the chamber on the debate on the Privileges Committee report which found that Boris Johnson had deliberately misled the House of Commons.

I spoke and voted in favour of the report. Everything we do in Westminster and our constituencies as your elected representatives can only succeed if we have trust from the communities we serve. We earn that trust by maintaining honesty and integrity which Boris Johnson failed to do. And the fact some MPs criticised those on the Committee trying to uphold that honesty and integrity is utterly shameful.

It seemed clear to me that a vote for the report was a vote for our democracy. You can see my speech here. 

I also spoke last month in the Holocaust Memorial Bill debate. It is far too easy for history to be forgotten. Last year, the UK saw a record high level of anti-Jewish hate. This is appalling. In total, almost a quarter of religious hate crimes were antisemitic.

So I fully support putting up a memorial so that we never forget all those murdered in the Holocaust. I spoke in the chamber on how important it is we now move on from the argument around the location of this memorial. The current location puts it in the heart of London where the most people can see it and access it. This is exactly what we need if we are to tackle the rise in antisemitism.

You can see my intervention here.